


The Salesman, The Assistant, and The Paper Company

by Hufflepuff1700



Series: The Salesman, The Assistant, and The Paper Company [1]
Category: The Office (US)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-21
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-18 19:22:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 21,836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29614233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hufflepuff1700/pseuds/Hufflepuff1700
Summary: (Y/n) (L/n) is a young woman working at Dunder Mifflin Paper Company in Scranton, Pennsylvania. She’s Michael Scott’s personal assistant…yes you heard right. She started her job at 19 right after moving to Scranton, Pennsylvania to get away from her overbearing Aunt who took her in when her parents died in a car accident when she was 12. Despite losing her parents at such a young age, she is a happy, sarcastic, sassy, independent woman.When she starts working for Michael, she meets the whole gang at the office and becomes best friends with the receptionist & is very close with a certain salesman…Jim Halpert.Now Jim, he fell in love with her when she started working at Dunder Mifflin, and those feelings have only gotten stronger over the years.Will (Y/n) reciprocate those feelings? Or will she fall for someone else?
Series: The Salesman, The Assistant, and The Paper Company [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2175774
Kudos: 2





	1. Prologue

Ok..breathe..just breathe…out, in, out, in, out. You’re probably wondering why I’m so nervous. I am just getting ready to start my new job…actually it’s my first job ever. I just moved here from San Diego, California.

Oh wait.. I forgot to introduce myself. My name is (Y/n) (L/n), I’m 19 years old. I lost my parents seven years ago due to a car crash. Because of that, I had to live with my overbearing Aunt…I had been saving up ever since I started living with her so that when I came of age, I could live on my own. I know my aunt only took me in because of my inheritance from my parents. In their will it said that when I turned 21, I would inherit $80 million dollars plus $20,000 a month. My parents were smart with their investments…

Last week when my Aunt left for a girls night, I left…I only took my clothes and all the pictures I had of my parents. So now I’m walking into my new job…a personal assistant…to the manager of a paper company…

Ok…here we go.

As I walk into the office, I immediately see a ginger receptionist, who seems very sweet. Walking up to her, I gain her attention.

“Hello, may I help you?”

“Yes, I’m (Y/n) (L/n). I’m the new personal assistant to a…Michael Scott..? Is that his name?” I ask unsurely.

Her face lights up with recognition, while at the same time, a bit of…sympathy? “Oh yes, I remember Michael mentioning someone would be his new personal assistant….I’m so sorry.”

Confused at why she’s apologizing I respond, “Umm..it’s okay?” “You’ll understand one day why I’m apologizing. Just to let you know too, if he asks you to do something and it sounds ridiculous to you…don’t do it.” I just slowly nod my head showing that I acknowledge her “warning”.

“Anyways, Michael should be out in…” “OH MY GOD GUYS! GUESS WHAT?! I GOT A PERSONAL ASSISTANT!!!” I jumped out of fright, turning to see a somewhat short man, with black hair, and a goofy smile on his face. What have I gotten myself into..??

“Hi! Welcome! Welcome to Dunder Mifflin! I’m Michael Scott, regional manager!”

“Oh umm…Hi. I’m..”

“(Y/n) (L/n), aged 19, born in (S/n), orphaned at age 12, loves baking, the HGTV channel, Friends TV sitcom, favorite color is (f/c), lived in San Diego, California, then moved here to Scranton.”….WHAT THE HELL?!?! I just stare at the tall man with glasses on his face as he revealed information that I never mentioned.

“Dwight…I told you not to stalk her…you’ll scare her away from me, _US_ , I mean scare her away from us…” I don’t know what’s happening….is this what Pam was talking about..?

“But Michael you asked me to find out everything I could about……”

“I said…no…such thing. Anyway, welcome to the office. Why don’t I give you the grand tour your Hotness! Get it?! Instead of saying “Your Highness”, I said, “Your Hotness…because your so hot..”

“No…no I got it Mr. Scott..” I replied unamused

“Yeah……”

“…”

“…”

I just stand there awkwardly with the whole office looking at us, waiting for Michael to start the tour of my new workplace.

“Well...on with the tour!” I turn back to look at Pam with a “Help me!” look on my face. She looks back with a face saying, “I wish I could!”

“First stop, is your very own…drumroll please..BBBRRRRRR…DESK! It is right in front of Dwight here,” ah so I’m facing the stalker…great.., “he is,” “Assistant regional manger!” “No Dwight, assistant **TO** the regional manager.” Wait…if he’s assistant to the regional manager…what is my job?!

“He helps me with my work…that I don’t want to do…and you are more so the ‘please get me coffee, get me lunch, give me a massage’ kind of personal assistant.” He says gleefully. But I’m never, ever, ever massaging him….

“And this tall fellow next to you here is Jim Halpert.” I turn to face this, Jim, the same time he turns to see me for the first time and…I think I heard his…gasp? No I must be hearing things…

“Nice to meet you, I’m (Y/n), as you may have already heard.” I say giving him my “award winning smile,” I’ve been told I have.

“………”

He just stares at me with his mouth open while continuing to shake my hand, while I still stare expectantly. He seems to snap out of it because he shakes his head and proceeds to smile.

“I-I’m Jim. Jim Halpert…like Michael said.”

“Pleasure to meet you Jim!”

“Oh no the pleasure is all mine..” he says while still smiling.

“Well, now we still have the rest of the office to see so let’s go!” Michael says pulling my arm, thus making Jim’s and my hands to disconnect.

*time skip to end of the day*

So today has been a somewhat good day; I made a few friends in Pam, Jim, and the customer service chick Kelly. I’m leery of Creed and Kevin, they seem a bit…creepy…Meredith is an interesting character…I’ll definitely go to her when I turn 21. Angela likes me because I have a kitten & she has what…a thousand cats… Oscar is pretty chill, definitely someone I’d hang with.

Phyllis is sweet, she helped me find a back scratcher when Michael asked me to scratch his back *shudders*. Dwight is…is…freaky. He followed me…everywhere…except the bathroom. I don’t think I’ll be friends with him in this lifetime. Or the next. Or the one after that. Michael…I don’t even have words to describe Michael. Stanley apparently likes me cause I’m new and didn’t bother him. Plus I think the “not-so-friendly” gesture I made to Dwight behind his back may have put me in his favor. Along with being one to tell him it was quitting time.

But overall…not a bad day.

As I’m walking to the car, Michael come up to me, “Hey (Y/n), how would you like to go to the bar and get a drink with me?!” I froze up, mouth agape…how do I say no without losing my job. Apparently the odds are in my favor because Jim runs up to us and says, “actually Michael, I already invited her to dinner tonight since she’s new here.” I start nodding my head, “Yes, yes that’s right! I already have plans with Jim.”

Michael storms off dejected. I turn to Jim with slight fear, “Please tell me I'm not going to be fired…” “Nah, he won’t do that. He’s just like that.” I breathe a sigh of relief.

“Great! I really need this job...for the next three years anyway.” I say mumbling the last part.

“Huh?”

“Oh nothing! But um thanks…for saving me from Michael.”  
  
“Well, we don’t want you stuck with him do we?!” he says laughing.

“No, no we don’t!” I say laughing with him.

“So…”

“So…”

“Do you like Chinese food?”

“Who doesn’t like Chinese food?!”

“Actually Dwight doesn’t…”

“….He’s dead to me now…”

Jim burst out laughing with tears falling down his face. I start to laugh too, and pretty soon we’re the only ones left in the parking lot.

“So how about we get some Chinese and watch some movies.” Jim suggests.

“I think that sounds like a plan.” I say smiling.

We both make our way to our cars and drive off…not a bad start to my new life. What will come next?


	2. The Documentary

So I just turned 21 last week and the office had a party for me. It was fun…until Michael came in dressed as me trying to impersonate me…I’ll never be able to unsee that. Everyone got me great gifts: Pam gave me my favorite books, Jim got me my favorite movies, which were created to depict my favorite books. Meredith got me alcohol, Angela got me another kitten – since my first one had passed due to cancer. Stanley gave me a gift card to my favorite restaurant (f/r). Kelly got me these shoes I had been wanting for a while now. Kevin got me…you don’t want to know; same with Creeds present. Phyllis got me a KitchenAid mixer and cupcake/cake decorating kit. Dwight gave me a gift card to stay at Shrute Farms for a weekend…I don’t think I’ll ever use that…Michael got me a contract…let me explain.

*flashback*

I just opened my “present” from Michael…it’s a contract…

“Um, Michael? Why did you get me a contract? And…what is it for?” Everyone is looking at Michael confused.

“Well…(Y/n)…this is my way of announcing that we are going to be stars in a documentary on NBC!!”

“What?!”

“Michael!”

“We didn’t agree to this!”

“Who would want to watch a documentary about a paper company?!”

“STOP IT!! ENOUGH!!! Now the crew will be here in a week to start filming…& the rest of you have contracts on your desk. And if they are not signed by this evening…then you will be fired…” Michael then saunters out of the room like boss…not even close.

*end of flashback*

So here we are…a week later…they’re coming in an hour. Ughh. See if you remember, when I turned 21, I inherited my initial millions; in addition to getting 20 large each month. So I really don’t need this job. But…I couldn’t leave Jim and Pam to deal with Michael and Dwight all by themselves. Over the past three years, the three of us have become best friends. I, though, still haven’t told them about my parents will and all the money they left me…I don’t know if I ever will.

I have only seen my aunt once since I left California. Guess where…at the attorney’s office. Since my parent’s attorney was in California, I had to fly there and deal with it. My aunt showed up, not really surprising, and I let her sit in – only for her to hear I get all the money. I wish I had gotten a picture of her expression!! It was priceless!! Her face turned redder than blood!!

Ok I’m done laughing now…

I’m standing by Pams desk getting the microphone attached to me.

“Nervous?”

“Nah…I’m just worried about how Michael is going to act now. He may dial up his ‘act’ to make the documentary more dramatic and interesting.” I say rolling my eyes.

Pam just nods in agreement. “Yeah, that sounds like something Michael would do.”

“What about you?”

“Eh, I’m not too nervous. I just hope Michael doesn’t embarrass us or the company.”

“Knowing Michael, he’ll do both.”

Ten minutes later, Jim walks in and gets setup with his microphone and stuff. One of the crewmen came over to Pam and I and asked me, “Are you ready for the introductory interview Ms. (L/n)?”

“Sure.”

We make our way to the conference room for my first “interview”. On the way I glance at Jim, to see him looking at me before quickly talking to the other crewman. That was weird…

After I’ve gotten comfortable, I start talking with them.

“ _Hello, I’m (Y/n) (L/n), I’m 21 years old, I work here as Michaels personal assistant. It’s…different, working here.”_

After the interview, I’m back at Pams desk talking to her about her wedding. Yup, my best friend is getting married. Her fiancée's name is Roy, he works down in the warehouse. I’m…not the biggest fan of him; but I don’t have the heart to tell Pam because she was just engaged when I first started. Yes, she’s been engaged for about three years…one of the reasons why I don’t like him. They should’ve been married already. Ugh, I better stop talking before I explode.

“Jim, can I see you for a moment?” Michael asks glancing at the camera. “Um..Sure I guess.” Jim glances at me with a “What?” look on his face, I shrug in return while shaking my head.

3rd POV:

Michael is sitting at his desk across from Jim talking about business. “All right Jim, your quarterlies look very good. How is the thing going at the library?” “Oh I told you I couldn’t close it so…” “And so you’ve come to the master for guidance…Is this what you’re saying young grasshopper?” Jim just stares at Michael, “Um actually you called me in here, but yeah.”

Michael ignores the comment, picking up the handset says, “All right, well, let me show you how it’s done…Yes, I’d like to speak to your office manager please. Yes hello this is Michael Scott, I am the regional manager of Dunder Mifflin paper products. I just wanted to talk to you, manager-on-manager. All right, done deal, thank you very much sir; you’re a gentleman and a scholar. Oh I’m sorry, ok, I’m sorry, my mistake.” Michael hangs up the phone with a slight grimace on his face. “That was a woman I was talking to…she had a very low voice. Probably a smoker. So, so that’s the way it’s done.” Jim just nods and walks out of the office back to his desk.

It then cuts to Michael walking to stand in front of the Dunder Mifflin sign and faces the camera. “I’ve been in Dunder Mifflin for twelve years, the last four as regional manager.” Michael then leads the cameraman into the office. “If you want to come through here, so we have the entire floor, so this is my kingdom, as far as the eye can see!” The camera pans around the room. Where you see a (h/l) (h/c) young woman, talking to a young ginger woman.

Interrupting the ladies conversation, Michael comes over, “Ah, this is our receptionist pam. Pam, Pam-Pam! Pam Beesly. Pam, here, has been with us for forever, right Pam?” “Well, I don’t know…” Pam glances at her (e/c) friend, who looks irritated at Michael for disrupting their conversation.

“If you think she’s cute now, then you should have seen her a couple of years ago! Yeee!”

“What?!” Both girls say/yell in unison. “Ah and here we have the hottie of the office, (Y/n) (L/n)!! YAY!! She’s my hot, sexy assistant!”

“What did you just call me Michael…?” (Y/n) asks scarily calm. Michael not getting the hint, says, “Well, it’s just you were hot when you started, what, three years ago? And each year you just keep getting hotter and hotter and hotter….” Michael trails off seeing her glare intensifying by the second. “So Pam, any messages?”

“Um, yeah, just a fax.” Michael taking the fax, skims it over. “Pam this is from corporate. How many times have I told you that there’s a special filing cabinet for things from corporate.”

“You haven’t told me…/What filing cabinet?” Pam & (Y/n) ask, again, in unison. “It’s called the wastepaper basket.” The girls just stare at him with disbelief as he throws away a, more than likely, important fax. “Look at that! Look at those faces!” Michael exclaims gesturing to the expressions on their faces.

Right now Jim is sitting in with the camera crew being interviewed. _“My job is to speak to clients on the phone about quantities…and type of copier paper. You know, whether we can supply to them…whether they can pay for it and…I’m boring myself just talking about this.”_

(Y/n) POV:  
  
I’m sitting at my desk playing solitaire, Jim is at his desk doing who knows what, & Dwight is annoyingly setting up for the day. Dwight, on a regular basis, likes to do a “theme song” to his routine here. I turn to Jim the same time he turns to me and I just roll my eyes as he laughs at me. Michael then comes out of his office, and walks over to us.

“Wasssssuuuuppppp!!”

Jim responds with, “Wasssuupp!! I still love that after seven years!”

Then Dwight jumps in and he and Michael continue to go back and forth…to the point where I’m this close to smacking them both. Michael turns to Jim, “What?” “Nothing.” “Ok, all right. See you later.” “Alright, take care.” “Back to work.”

I turn to Jim, “Coffee break?” “Please!” We both get up & walk to the break room. “So, Chinese and movies tonight?” “Um, of course! I’ve been looking forward to this since Monday.” “(Y/n), it’s Tuesday…” “What’s your point?” “Nevermind then.”

_“Ever since Jim saved me from getting a drink with Michael, we have a tradition. We go to his house and watch whatever movies and/or TV shows we like, while eating Chinese food. This is a tradition we do every Tuesday night. I don’t want him to see my house. It’s big, and it’ll make me feel bad that I have a much bigger place than him.”_

_“Yeah, when (Y/n) started working here three years ago, we’ve had the habit of going back to my place to watch movies or shows we want to watch while eating Chinese food. I don’t know why we always have it at my apartment but it’s fine. We mostly end up watching “Friends”, which I don’t mind…It keeps her happy.” Jim says smiling at the ground blushing._

Right now, I’m sitting with Michael, his boss Jan, and Pam. Pam is here to take notes on the meeting, and I’m in here because Jan says that she, “feels better with more people in a room when she’s near Michael.” Which I totally get.

“All right, was there anything you wanted to add to the agenda?” “Oh…me no get an agenda.” “I’m sorry, what?” “I didn’t get any agenda.” “I faxed one over to you this morning…” “Really? Cause I didn’t…did we get a fax this morning?” Michael turns to us, like we would have the paper we told him about, but that he put in the “Special filing cabinet.” Of course he forgot about that.

“Yeah, it was the one..” “Why isn’t it in my hand? Because a company runs on efficiency of communication, right? So what’s the problem, Pam, why didn’t I get it?” “You put it in the garbage can that was the special filing cabinet.” Michael freezes, caught red-handed, and jan look irritated. Good thing I planned for this.

“I have a copy of the agenda right here.” I hate it when he blames pam for his mistakes…

“Thank you (Y/n), I’m glad three of us are prepared.” Jan says motioning to her, myself, and Pam. Sorry Michael…not sorry. “Ok, so since the last meeting, Alan and the board have decided that we can’t justify both the Scranton branch and the Stanford Branch.. Michael don’t panic—”

“Oh ok. No, no no no no this is good, this is fine…” “Michael listen, don’t panic. We haven’t made any decision yet, I’ve spoken to Joshua already in Stanford. I’ve told him the same as you, and it’s up to either you or him to convince me that your branch can incorporate the other.”

“Ok, no problem.” “This however means that there is going to be downsizing.” Wait…what?! I glance at pam out of the corner of my eye. We share a look of worry. How’s Michael going to react about this?

“Me no wanna hear that Jan, because downsizing is a bitch, it is a real bitch, and I wouldn’t wish that on Josh’s men, I certainly wouldn’t wish it on my men, or women, present company excluded, sorry. Is josh concerned about downsizing himself? Not downsizing himself, but is he concerned about downsizing?” Oh Michael… Question: how long do we have to—” He’s cut off by the phone suddenly ringing. “Oh, Todd Packer, terrific rep, do you mind if I take it?” Say no, Jan, just say no.

“No, go right ahead.” Bad move jan…

“Pac Man!” “Hey, big queen!” “oh, that’s not appropriate…” “Hey, is old Godzillary coming in today?” Jan looks at Michael affronted, while I just shake my head at the man I most despise…and I work with Dwight.

Michael just answers Packer, “I don’t know what you mean.” “Look, I’ve been meaning to ask her one question. ‘Does the carpet match the drapes?’” Oh I know he did not just say that…

Michael quickly hangs up the phone, “Oh my god! That’s so horrifying! Horrible, horrible person!” “So do you think we can keep a lid on this for now? I don’t want to worry people unnecessarily.” “No, absolutely. Under the regime, it will not leave this office.” Yeah right, the second Jan leaves, Michael is going to make a big scene. Help me…

After that meeting is adjourned, I return to my desk to play more solitaire. Jim leans over and whispers, “What happened in there?” “Tell you later off the clock…” “Ok.” “What are you two whispering about?” Dwight suddenly appears and tries to jump into our conversation. I look at him with a bored expression, “What are you doing?” “You were just in a meeting with Michael. I want details.” “You won’t get any details from me…” “FINE!” He storms back to his desk. I glance back at Jim stifling my laughter.

I then hear the front door open, and in walks a decent looking guy, who’s probably around my age. Pam greets him to find out he’s the new intern asking for Michael. He doesn’t know what he’s in for. Michael suddenly rushes out of his office over towards him. Pam introduces them, “This is Mister Scott.” “Guilty, guilty as charged.” “Ryan Howard from the temp agency, they sent me down to start today.” “Howard, like Moe Howard, Three Stooges? Right here, my vibe!” Michael proceeds to imitate Moe, thus ruining the classic Three Stooges. Hey I may be young, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know classic TV. “Oh Pam, that’s a guy thing Pam. I’m sort of a student in comedy. Watch this, here I go.” Michael…no…just no. is he seriously imitating Hitler? “I’m Hitler, Adolf Hitler!”

_If they downsized, it wouldn’t affect me. I’m rich now so…even if they did I’d take Pam, Jim, and Oscar in. They’re the ones I get along best with. Don’t tell Michael._

Jim’s trying to talk to a client, and Dwight – being Dwight – is pushing files off of Jim’s desk. What is he playing at now?! Jim asks to call the client back, “Dwight, what are you doing?” “What?” “What are you doing?” “Just clearing my desk, I can’t concentrate.” “It’s not on your desk!” “It’s overlapping. It’s all coming over the edge. One word, two syllable: demarcation.”

Dwight then gets up from his desk to go to the break room. I reach into a drawer in my desk and in it are 25 freshly sharpened pencils. “Jim?” “Hm?” “How about we set up some ‘boundaries’?” “(Y/n) you’re a genius!” Together we work to set up the pencils as a “fence” between our desks and Dwight’s. When we’ve finished, I just proudly look at Jim’s and my accomplishment. I smile at him and he smiles back.

_“Yeah, (Y/n) and I pull pranks on Dwight all the time. She comes up with some amazing stuff…she’s so smart, funny, kind, sassy, and gorgeous…um you know in the “friend” kind of way…”_

As Dwight comes back, he notice’s the improvements we’ve made. “You can’t do that.” “Why not?” “Safety violation, I could fall and pierce an organ.” “We’ll see!” Jim and I say crossing our fingers. Dwight then proceeds to destroy all our hard work! Ok, it may have taken only three minutes but still! Jim turned to the camera and proceeded to say, “This is why the whole ‘downsizing’ thing just doesn’t bother me.” Dwight freezes and says, “Downsizing?!”

Later Michael called a meeting in the conference room. There’s a few ways I see this going…none of them good. So right now I'm sitting next to Jim playing hangman…and I’m winning!

Michael proceeds to say, “Now, I know there’s some rumors out there, and I just kind of want to see—” “I’m assistant regional manager, I should know first.” “Assistant to the regional manager.” “Ok. Can you just tell me please? Just whisper it in my ear.” “I’m about to tell everybody. I’m just about to tell everyone.” “Please, ok. Do you want me to tell them?” “You don’t know what it is!” “Can you tell them, with my permission?” “I don’t need your—” “Permission granted. Go ahead.”

I lean over to Jim and whisper, “Can they just stop and get on with the meeting?” “You should know after three years of being here?” “I know…” I grumble.

“Corporate has deem it appropriate to enforce an ultimatum upon me, and Jan is thinking about downsizing either the Stanford branch or this branch.” Good job, not telling anyone anything Michael…

Oscar cuts in, “Yeah, but Michael what if they downsize here? “Not gonna happen.” “It could be out of your hands Michael.” “It won’t be out of my hands, Stanley, ok? I promise you that.” “Can you promise that?” “On his mother’s grave.” “Well, eh, no. Yeah it is a promise, and frankly I’m a little bit insulted that you have to keep asking about it.” “It’s just that we need to know.”

“Hold on a second, I think Pam or (Y/n) want to say something, Pam? (Y/n)? You had a look that you wanted to ask a question, just then?” Pam speaks up, “We were in the meeting with jan and she did say that it could be this branch that gets the axe.” “Pam? Maybe you should stick to the ongoing confidentiality agreement of meetings.” WHAT?! He’s the one who called for this meeting! “Yeah, Pam, information is power.” “Michael, you were the one who called this meeting, you were the one who told Jan that you weren’t going to say anything so if anyone needs to ‘stick to the ongoing confidentiality agreement of meetings’ it’s you, not Pam. Especially since you put her on the spot.”

_“I don’t know if you can tell, but I’m very protective of my friends. Especially Pam, who’s like my older sister. I may also have a bit of a temper…”_

After a bit of stunned silence, Stanley breaks it by continuing, “So you can’t say for sure whether it’s gonna be to us or them.” “No, no, no, Stanley, no you did not see me in there with her. I said, if corporate wants to come in here, and interfere then they’re gonna have to go through me, right? You know, you can go and mess with Josh’s people, but I’m the head of this family, and you ain’t gonna be messing with my chillen!”

_“If I left, what would I do with all this useless information in my head? You know, tonnage price of manila folders? (Y/n)’s favorite coffee creamer, which is (f/f/c).”_

_“Jim said (f/f/c)? Yep, he’s on to me.”_

After the – in my opinion – catastrophic meeting, we all returned to our desks. Jim turned to me and asked, “Hey, are you ok?” “If you’re referring to me defending pam, I'm as good as I can be at the moment.” Jim nods, knowing he won’t get any more out of me. His face lights up after a little while. He’s up to something. “I know that look, Halpert, what are you up to?” “I know just the way to cheer you up, (L/n).” “How?” “Not saying…” I glare in return. I then get up to go talk to Pam.

“Hey.” “Hey!” “How are you?” “I’m fine, I appreciate you standing up for me. You didn’t have to.” “Are you kidding?! Of course! You’re my big sister!” “Aww! You’re like my little sister. I honestly keep forgetting that you 9 years younger than me.” “Me too!” We share a laugh, and talk about certain wedding details, and how I’m the maid of honor!

Later I’m back at my desk and Michael comes over with the new intern. “Watch out for this guy! Dwight Shrute in the building! This is Ryan, the new temp.” “Nice to meet you.” Just wait dude, you won’t like Dwight. “Introduce yourself, be polite.” “Dwight Shrute, Assistant Regional Manager.” “Assistant to the Regional Manager. So Dwight, tell him about the kung fu, and the car, and everything.” “Yeah, I got a 78-2-8, I’ve bought her for 1200, fixed it up, now worth three grand.” “That is his profit!” “New engine, suspension, I’ve got some photos—” Dwight opened his drawer while I try to ignore the conversation and focus on my multiplayer poker game with Meredith, Phyllis, and Pam. “DAMN IT!! JIM!! (Y/N)!!” “Ok, hold on, judge is in session. What is the problem here?” “They put my stuff in Jello again!!”

I burst out laughing! Im laughing so hard that I fall out of my chair, crying! Oh that is too good! “That’s real professional, thanks. That’s the third time and it wasn’t funny the first time!” “What is that?” Dwight reaches into the Jello while grabbing his office supply. “That’s my stapler.” “No no no, don’t take it out! You have to eat it out of there, because there are starving people in the world, which I hate, and it is a waste of that kind of food.”

Turning to Ryan, Dwight says, “Ok, you know what? You can be a witness. Can you reprimand them, please?” he says to Michael. While eating jello, Jim says, “How do you know it was me? I mean, I know for sure it wasn’t (Y/n). She’s been talking to Pam.” He then glances at me, giving me a slight wink, our signal for – “Oh it was totally me!” I just laugh at him.

“It’s always you two! Are you gonna discipline him or not?” “Ooh discipline, KINKY! All right, here’s the deal you guys, the thing about practical jokes, is that you have to know when to start, as well as when to stop! And yeah, Jim, now is the time to stop putting Dwight’s personal effects into Jello.”

“Ok, Dwight, I’m sorry because, I’ve always been your biggest flan.” “Nice! That’s the way it is around here!” Ryan then cuts in, “You should have put him in custard-y…” “Yes, new guy! He scores!” “Ok that’s great, I guess, what I’m most concerned with is damage to company property. That’s all.”

Michael pauses, probably trying to come up with a comeback. “Pudding…Im trying to think, another dessert to do.” What did I tell you?

Michael then drags Dwight with him and Ryan. I then lean over to Jim, “Hey…was that your way of cheering me up?” “Why yes, yes I believe it was.” He says with a smug look on his face. “Well, mission accomplished!” I smile my best smile at him and get up to go to the restroom…completely missing Jim’s lovestruck smile and eyes following me.

3rd POV:

Jim turns back to his desk, only to see pam waving him over with a giddy look on her face. When he approaches the desk, he looks at Pam confused. “What?” “I saw that!” “…Saw what?”

_“I’m really hoping she’s not talking about the look I gave (Y/n) when she wasn’t looking. Not that I was looking at her…”_ he says shyly.

“Your heart eyes and wide smile, to (Y/n)!!”

_“ I_ _knew it was pointless to hope…that she didn’t see the non-existent look…”_

“Ha ha, what? PSH..no I wasn’t…I wasn’t—” “Oh come off it! You’ve been smitten with her ever since she started working here!” “…” “…”

_“Ok…so maybe I like (Y/n)…”_

“~You like (Y/n)!!~” “What? I don’t –” “Why are you denying it? I’ve spent the last three years watching you watch her…” “Ok! Fine, yes I like her. But it’s not like it’s gonna happen…” “Why do you say that?” “Because! She’s like, five years younger than me…” “And age matters…?” “What? To me no…but to her…I don’t know.” “You’ll never know until you ask…”

Jim thinks it over, but goes back to his desk to continue working.

Pam’s POV: *Surprise!*

Oh poor Jim, I’ve been watching him falling more and more for (Y/n)…I hope they get together! Honestly, too, their five year age difference makes them so cute! I wonder if I can help get them together….

(Y/n)’s POV:

It’s finally the end of the day! I’m ready for some Moo-goo-gai pan and watch Ross fall for Rachel! *Sighs* I don’t understand how Rachel didn’t see that he loved her…

Right now, Jim and I are trying to convince Pam to go out on Friday for some drinks. Because after a week of working here…you need a drink or two.

“Do you like to go out at the end of the week for a drink?” “Yeah!” “Oh, that’s why we’re all going out on Friday, so we can have an ‘end of the week’ drink!” “Yeah you should come with us Pam!” She really needs a break from the wedding planning…especially since a date hasn’t been set…

“Well then, what time would we be going out?” “I don’t know, right after work, hopefully.”

I hear the door open and turn to see Roy, Pam’s fiancé, walk in…oh the joy…note the sarcasm.

“Hey man, firecracker!” he greets us. Yup, he calls me, “firecracker” due to the fact that I blew up when one of the old warehouse workers grabbed my ass. They’ve been scared of me ever since! *Smug smile*

“Hey!”

“What’s going on?”

“Hi…”

“Hey baby!”

“Do you mind if I go out for a drink with these guys on Friday?” “No, come on. Let’s get out of here and go home.” Dude she wasn’t asking for tonight. Do you see why I don’t like him!

“Ok, I will be out in a few minutes, so it’s like twenty past five and I still have to do my faxes. Come with (Y/n)?” “Yes! Please!”

As Pam and I are by the fax machine, she turns to me and asks, “So, (Y/n), I don’t think I’ve asked you this, but, how do you feel about dating older guys?”

I kind of freeze when she asks that. I don’t know whether to feel confused, worried, or creeped out. I hope she doesn’t mean too much older…

“Like, how much older?” “Oh you know, like five years.” “Oh, thank goodness I thought you were talking about like Stanley or Creeds age…” “Oh god no!” we both laugh at this.

“But to answer your question, I wouldn’t care if I dated someone about five years older…why?” “Oh no reason I was just curious.”

_“Oh there’s totally a reason why I asked her…I’m going to play matchmaker! I want her and Jim together!!”_

“Sureeee.”

_“She asked me that for a reason…I’m young not stupid.”_

Pam walks into Michael's office to give him the faxes. He apparently asked her to stay and told her to call me in too. We’re both sitting down. He has this glint in his eye…he’s up to something.

“As you both know, there is going to be downsizing, and you both have made my life so much easier, Pam with your quick actions, (Y/n) with your sexiness making me want to come to work in the morning—” “Michael!!” “Sorry, but in that I'm going to have to let you go first.” “Halle-frickin-lujah! I’m free!/What? Why?” Pam & I obviously have different reactions…”Why? Well, theft. And stealing. And withholding.” Huh…?

“Stealing? Um, what am I supposed to have stolen?” Pam looks so disheartened and confused right now. She’s the most honest person I know! She wouldn’t steal anything!

“Post-It notes.” “Michael, you’ve got to be kidding me?” “Post-It notes? What are those worth, 50 cents?” “50 cents, yes. You steal a thousand Post-It notes at 50 cents apiece, then you know, you’ve made a profit margin. Resell of business Pam. And you, (Y/n), with your withholding…”

“Withholding?! Withholding what?!” “Withholding a date with me…in the three years you’ve been here we’ve not been on one date.” “Michael…you can’t fire me for that…and I am not now, nor will ever be attracted to you…EVER!!” I am struggling very hard to keep from strangling him.

“Are you serious?” Oh right Pam, she’s accused of worse.

“Yeah.” “I can’t believe this. I mean, I’ve never even stolen as much as a paper clip and you're firing me.” “Yup, and the best thing is, that we’re not gonna have to give you any severance pay, because that is gross misconduct, and just clean out your desk’s sorry guys.”

I am not bothered by this at all, Pam though starts crying and I'm comforting her while glaring at Michael for making my sister cry. It seems Michael realizes what he’s done and says that the whole thing is a prank. And I finally see my sister say the works she’s, surprisingly, never said to Michael…”YOU’RE A JERK!” Her and I leave his office, and she straightens up like nothing ever happened.

Shocked, I look at her and say, “What? You were faking it?!” “Yup, I noticed he had a certain mischievous look in his eye and played along with whatever he did.” “I’m so proud of you right now sis!” I hug her squeezing the life out of her.

After releasing her from my death hold, her and I turn to see Jim at his desk. She suddenly was like, “Oh! I just remembered; Roy & I need to be somewhere…see you tomorrow.” She walks off grabbing her coat and winking at me…what’s she on about?

I walked over to Jim, “Hey! You about ready?” “Yup…so what happened in Michael’s office?” “Oh, he tried to fire Pam and me…over ridiculous accusations.” Jim looks at me amused and starts laughing. “Like what?” “Well, he tried to fire Pam over ‘stealing’ Post-it notes—” “Post-It notes?! Oh man that’s insane.” “I know, right?! And then he tried to fire me for withholding.” Jim appears confused. “Withholding what?”

I start chuckling, “He said that I was withholding a date from him. Can you believe that?!” I notice Jim looking startled and a bit…irritated? “Jim, you okay?” “Hmm? Oh yeah, it’s nothing.” “Are you sure?” “Yup, now, I’m ready for some Chinese and a show.” “Me too!”

I walk over to grab my coat and I see Jim motion the cameras to follow him. “Come here…” He carries something covered with a towel into Michael’s office. I make eye contact with him and look at him with an appearance saying, ‘What are you doing?’ He just smiles at me and sets the item down to reveal Michael’s mug that says, “World’s Best Boss.” It was floating in Jell-O! I start laughing so hard I start crying. I high-five Jim as he comes over to grab his jacket. “Genius my friend…GENIUS!” “Thank you! So, I’ll see you in 20 minutes?” “Yup, see you in a little bit.”

I hug Jim before getting into my car. I wave to Jim and go get our food.

3rd POV:

The camera’s film Jim lovingly staring after (Y/n)’s car. He turns to go to his car and finds the camera crew. He freezes like a deer in headlights. Sighing defeated, “Ok…ok…I’ll admit it. I love (Y/n), I have since I first met her. **I, Jim Halpert, am in love with (Y/n) (L/n)!** ” He then drives off, going to meet (Y/n) at his apartment.


	3. Diversity Day

*Ring Ring Ring*

*Ring Ring Ring*

Ughhh…Who’s calling at…2:00 a.m.? I pick up my phone, “H-hello?” “(Y/N)!!” I shoot up into a sitting position. “OH MY GOD (A/N)! What the hell?!” “Why am I locked out of the account?!” I sit there confused. “What account?” “My personal bank account! It’s frozen because of there being a ‘$0.00 balance.’ I know you had something to do with this!” “No, no I didn’t. now, don’t call me again…goodbye!” I hang up before she can say anything else. That vindictive woman gets under my skin so much. I close my eyes to get some more sleep before work.

*Ring Ring Ring*

*Ring Ring Ring*

GUH!! AGAIN?! I angrily answer the phone, “WHAT?! WHAT NOW?!” “Umm…(Y/n)? You ok?” I suddenly go pale. “Oh man! I’m so sorry Jim! I thought you were (A/n)…” “It’s ok, but where are you? And who’s (A/n)?” “What do you mean where am I? it’s—” I look at the clock and it says 9:45 a.m.

…

…

I’M LATE FOR WORK!!!!!!!!!!

“OH MY GOD I’M LATE FOR WORK!!” “And now I’ve gone deaf.” “Ugh sorry again Jim! I overslept. Tell Michael I’ll be there soon! Bye!” I hang up the phone and rush to get ready. I can’t believe I slept in! I must have forgotten to set the alarm. Wow the morning came fast too.

I’m finally out the door and thankfully know shortcuts to the office. I get there in 15 minutes. I run up the stair, thankful I wore flats today. I burst into the office, and Pam comes over to check on me. “(Y/n? Are you okay? You look like you ran a marathon.” “Overslept…forgot alarm…need coffee…need…oxygen.” She just chuckles, “Hold on, I’ll get you your coffee.” She goes while I just plop on to the sofa. I feel the cushion sink next to me and lazily look at the culprit.

“Hello, have a good run?” “Shut up you cheeky jerk. I only ran through the parking lot and up the steps…when I could’ve just taken the elevator…” I literally facepalm myself, my best friend starts laughing at me. “Stop laughing Halpert! I feel stupid right now.” “I’m sorry (L/n), but your expression…priceless.” I just start pouting like a child and cross my arms facing away from Jim.

He calms down seeing me upset. “You haven’t had coffee yet, have you?” “No, she hasn’t. Here’s your coffee (Y/n).” I look to see Pam holding my mug of coffee. “Oh, thanks Pam! You’re a lifesaver!” “No problem; I know how you get when you haven’t had a daily dose of caffeine.”

I sip some coffee to find both of my best friends staring at me. “You feel better you coffee addict?” I smile at Jim, “Yes I’m fine now. Sorry for being upset.” “Eh no biggie. So, who’s (A/n)?” I tense up a bit I can tell that they notice. “Can I tell you guys later?” “Yea!/Of course!”

I get over to my desk…and in 3…2…1! “You’re late.” “I know Dwight. I overslept.” “Unacceptable. MICHAEL!” He then storms into Michaels office. I shake my head at his “I’m going to get you and Jim fired!” attitude.

While he’s gone I turn to Jim, “Hey isn’t today the day you call Mr. Decker?” “Yup! I tried calling earlier, but then Dwight was shredding paper and we could hear each other. Then I unplugged his shredder, and he hung up the phone.” I hate when Dwight undermines Jim.

_“This is my biggest sale of the year. They love me over there for some reason. I’m not really sure why but I make one call over there every year, just to renew their account, and that one call ends up being 25% of my commission for the whole year, so I buy a mini bottle of champagne, which I can now share with (Y/n), and celebrate a little. And this year I’m pushing recycled paper on them for one percent more. I know. I’m getting cocky. Right?”_

“Oh I’m sorry!” I go over and hug him, “But hey! You still have the rest of the day!” “Y-y-yeah, I do…” Why did he stutter? He doesn’t do that…strange.

_“Jim doesn’t normally stutter…I wonder what caused him to do so? It’s probably just the thought of not getting the sale, it’s making him nervous.”_

_“Yeah, um I am nervous, but um, I just got chills when (Y/n) hugged me…which caused me to stutter.” Jim looks down embarrassed. “S-she caught the stutter?”_

We make our way to Pam to find her playing solitaire. “Solitaire?” Jim asks. “Yeah, freecell.” “Oh, Pam, put the six on seven.” “I know (Y/n). I saw that.” “So then, why didn’t you do it?” “I’m saving that ‘cause I like it when the cards go ‘T-ts-ts-tch-tch-tch.’” “Who doesn’t love that?” I start chuckling at my friends.

Jim goes back to his desk to try for Mr. Decker again. I stay chatting with Pam a bit more talking about our plans for the weekend. I hear Michael’s door open and he goes over to…Oscar?

“Hey, Oscar! How are you doing, man?” Oscar looks as confused as me. “All right.” “Did you have a good weekend going there?” “It was fine.” “Oh yeah, I bet it was fun.-“ The man corporate sent over for “Diversity Day” comes over…oh now I get it. Michael…you idiot. “Oh, hey! This is Oscar –” “Martinez.” “Right. See? I don’t even know, first-name basis!” Corporate guy doesn’t look all that amused. “Great. We’re all set.”

“Oh hey, well, diversity, everybody, let’s do it. Oscar works in…here. Jim could you wrap it up, please?” “Yeah, uh, Mr. Decker, please.” Wait…Mr. Decker? “Actually, Michael, could you let him finish his call and then he can join in wherever the meeting is and I can fill him in later on what he missed?” “Uh, no, (Y/n). He has to be presence. It’s diversity day, Jim. I wish every day was diversity day.” Michael…this counts for 25% of his yearly commission!

“You know what? I’m actually going to have to call you back. Thank you. Sorry about that.” Jim sadly hangs up the phone. I smile sadly at him, “Come on. Let’s get this meeting over with, then you can call him up sooner.” The corners of his lips curl up. We walk into the conference room and sit in our usual seats.

Mr. Brown, who I found out was Corporate guy’s name, handed out cards for us to fill out. We had to write down an example of an incident we found offensive…how to pick just one. There’s so many. We handed them back to him, “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Great.” “Come one people, let’s get’em in. Get in the cards! Get in the cards!” Michael is trying to “co-lead” this meeting…which I’m pretty sure we’re having because of him.

I lean over to Jim and whisper, “What did you put down?” “Michael’s ‘impression’ of Chris Rock’s bit.” “Me too!” We high-five each other with big smiles on our faces. He puts in arm behind my chair and I lean in a bit closer. I love that we’re this close. I’m glad that our friendship is so chill and comfortable that we can do this sort of stuff. I focus on the meeting that we need to sit through.

“Thank you. Thank you very much. Ok. Thanks for filling these out and I promise this’ll be quick. At Diversity Today, our philosophy is about honesty and positive expectations. We believe that 99% of the problems in the workplace arise simply out of ignorance.”

“You know what? This is a color-free-zone here. Stanley, I don’t look at you as another race.” I start shaking my head at Michael. “Uh, see this is what I’m talking about. We don’t have to pretend we’re color-blind.”

“Exactly, were not…”

“That’s fighting ignorance with more ignorance.”

“With tolerance.”

“No. With more ignorance.”

“Ignorance.”

“Right. Exactly. Uh, instead, we need to celebrate our diversity.”

“Let’s celebrate.”

“Right. Ok.”

“Celebrate good times. Come on! Let’s celebrate diversity. Right?”

“Yes, exactly. Now here’s what we’re going to do. I’ve noticed that—”

“You know what? Here’s what we’re going to do. Why don’t we go around and everybody…everybody say a race that you are attracted to sexually. I will go last. GO!”

I turn to Jim stunned. “Please tell me he didn’t say what I think he did…” “Oh, he did.” Dwight, Michael’s shadow, raises his hand. Please don’t Dwight. “I have two. White and Indian.” I see Kelly tense up beside Dwight…Oh, poor Kelly. I feel bad for her.

“Actually, I’d prefer not to start that way. Michael, I would love to have your permission to run this session. Can I have your permission?” Michael’s silent for a second, thinking. “Yes.” I roll my eyes, like he had a choice.

“Thank you very much. And it would also help me if you were seated.” “Ok.” How can he tame Michael so well?! “Thank you. Ok. Now, at the start of the session, I had all of you write down an incident that you found offensive in the workplace. Now, what I’m going to do is choose one and we’re going to act it out.”

Dwight interrupts Mr. Brown, “A few of the ground rules?” Michael, then tries to reign in Dwight, “Hey, hey, why don’t you run it by me and I’ll run it by him?” “Ok, can we steer away from gay people?” “Um…” Poor Mr. Brown he doesn’t know how to react to that; do you see what I have to deal with every day? At least I have Jim there to make it endurable. Oh and Pam too!

“I’m sorry. It’s an orientation. It’s not a race. Plus a lot of other races are intolerant of gays, so…paradox.” “Well, we only have an hour.” “I figured it would save time.” We’re wasting time talking about this! I just bury my head irritated into Jim’s shoulder. “Kill me now Jim.” He sits there thinking, “Eh, nah. I’d rather keep my best friend alive.” I playfully shove him while chuckling.

“Ok. Why don’t we just defer to Mr…” “Mr. Brown.” “Ah. Oh right! Ok. First test. I will not call you that.” “Well, it’s my name. it’s not a test. Ok? Um, so looking through the cards, I’ve noticed that many of you wrote down the same incident, which is ironic, because it’s the exact incident I was brought in here to respond to. Now, how many of you are familiar with the Chris Rock routine?” We all put our hands up, “Very good. Ok. So we’re going to reenact this with a more positive outcome.”

Michael jumps up, “I will play the Chris Rock guy. I would like to see someone else pull this off.” No, Michael! That’s why we’re sitting here right now. “Well, let’s have someone who wasn’t involved in the reenactment.” “Ok, I will play guy listening.” “Great. Guy listening. Ok, anyone else remember?” Kevin pipes up, “I remember.” “Great. You’re the Chris Rock guy and you’re guy listening.” “Ok.” I smell a disaster coming along. I lay my head on Jim’s shoulder, mentally preparing for the tragedy getting ready to strike.

We give our attention to Kevin, “Basically, there are two types of black people and black people are actually more racist because they hate the other type of black people.” I look over at Michael and he looks like he’s in pain, or restraining himself. Either one. “Every time the one type wants to have a good time, then the other type comes in and makes a real mess.”

Michael looks like he’s had enough, “Ok. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. He’s ruin…He’s butchering it. Could you just let me… **Every time…Every time black people want to have a good time, some ignant ass *bleep* I take care of my kid!** ” OH MY GOD MICHAEL! Mr. Brown tries to stop him, “Wait a second.” “ ***Bleep* They always want credit for something they supposed to do!** ” Mr. Brown has enough and yells, “ **STOP IT!!** ”

…It goes silent for a second...and in 3...2…1…

“ **What you want, a cookie?** ”

I just put my head into my hands…I need a break. Like a trip. Yeah! I should plan a trip. Oh, I should see if Jim wants to go too. I hear a phone start ringing and I look over. I notice Jim looking as well…it must be Mr. Decker. I really hope he gets this sale! If he doesn’t, I have a backup plan…cue the evil laugh!

We now return to our regularly scheduled broadcast!

“Now, this is a simple acronym. HERO. Uh, at Diversity Today, we believe it is very easy to be a HERO. All you need are honesty, empathy, respect and open-mindedness.” “Excuse me, I’m sorry, but that’s not all it takes to be a hero.” Not superheroes Dwight…not superheroes. But, of course, Mr. Brown doesn’t understand Dwight like us.

“Oh, great. Well, what is a hero to you?” “A hero kills people, people that wish him harm.” “Ok…” “A hero is part-human and part-supernatural. A hero is born out of a childhood trauma, or out of a disaster that must be avenged.” “Ok, you’re thinking of a superhero.” “We all have a hero in our heart.”

I never thought I’d say this but…I agree with Dwight. Tony Stark, Iron Man, is in my heart. I love him 3000.

“Now, I need you to take these forms. This kind of expresses the joint experience we had today. And I need you to look’em over and sign them as kind of a group pledge.” Finally! I can get out of here.

“I can’t believe we had to sit through that…and all for Michael who probably didn’t even retain anything.” I put my head on my desk, I feel someone rubbing my back. I look up to see my best guy friend. “Thanks, Halpert.” “No problem, (L/n).”

_“I just love my friendship with Jim! He’s so understanding, sweet, and kind…I don’t know why he hasn’t found someone yet…” I smile at the cameras._

_“I know that I just admitted to lov-liking! Liking (Y/n)…but I…I don’t think I can even think about being with anyone else…I’ll just wait, wait for her to start liking me back.” He looks down with a somewhat happy yet sad smile._

“Yeah, hi. Is Mr. Decker around?” I look over happy Jim would be able to finally do the sale. “Oh, well, could you just have him call me after lunch? Thank you.” He hangs up, then turns to me. “Sorry, Jim. He’ll call, don’t worry. They love you!” I rub his arm in comfort while he puts his hand on mine. “Thanks.”

We kind of sit there for a while, staring at each other, when I realize I still have my hand on his arm and he realizes that his hand is still on my hand we kind of jerk away from each other. That was…weird. Why do I feel my heart beating faster? Eh…

Pam POV:

I look up from my desk to see (Y/n) rubbing her hand on Jim’s arm and his hand on hers. My eyes widen and I look at the cameras with a smile on my face. MY SHIP IS SAILING!!! (S/N) IS SAILING!!! MY OTP!!!

_“It’s torturous to me, to watch Jim and (Y/n), pining after each other. One doing it knowingly, the other unknowingly. I’m 99.5% sure that (Y/n) does have feeling for Jim, but she herself, doesn’t know it.” I smile confidently at the camera._

(Y/n) POV:

Pam and I are talking about our favorite show, Friends, when we hear Michael’s annoying voice. “’I pledge to always keep an open mind and an open heart.’ I do believe…in that part of the pledge that I just read. But a pledge? Come on. I mean who are we, the Girl Scouts? No. Look…the guy, ‘Mr. Brown,’ he got us halfway there. He got us talking. Well, no. I got us talking. He got us nothing. He insulted us and he abandoned us. You call that diversity training? I don’t. Were there any connections between any of us? Did anyone look each other in the eye? No. Where was the heart? I didn’t see any heart. Where was my Oprah moment? Ok, get as much done as you can before lunch because, afterward, I’m going to have you all in tears.”

I stand there stunned. But, I don’t know if that’s good or bad. I look around the office and it seems that everyone is a bit taken back by what just transpired. I turn back to Pam, “What..?” “I don’t know.” We both walk into the conference room.

“All right? Everybody pretty? Come one. Here we go. It’s time. Let’s do some good.” “Hey, we’re not all going to sit in a circle Indian style are we?” Toby says while laughing. Michael, though, is unamused. “Get out.” “I’m sorry.” “No, this is not a joke. Ok? That was offensive and lame. So double offensive. This is an environment of welcoming and you should just get the hell out of here.” Awkwardly, Toby just turns and leaves.

“Ok, let’s go. Let’s do it. Come on. Let’s have some fun, everybody. Here we go. Take a seat. Cop a squat. And um…thanks for coming in. Um…Diversity…is the cornerstone of progress as I’ve always said. But don’t take my word for it. Let’s take a look at the tape.” I roll my eyes annoyed at Michael’s antics.

He starts the video, “Hi. I’m Michael Scott. I’m in charge of Dunder Mifflin Paper Products here in Scranton, Pennsylvania but I’m also the founder of Diversity Tomorrow, because today is almost over. Abraham Lincoln once said that, ‘If you’re a racist, I will attack you with the North.’ And those are the principles that I carry with me in the workplace.’” Is that it? Is Michael serious?

He turns to us, “Ok. Questions? Comments? Anybody?” Jim raises his hand, and Michael acknowledges him. “Jim?” “Uh, is that it?” “Yes. I only had an hour to put it together but I’m going to add on to it later on.”

Kevin pipes up, “It was kind of hard to hear.” “Uh, yes. That probably had something to do with the camera work. Anybody else? Um…” Kelly stands up, “I have a customer meeting.” “Yeah, well, if you leave we’ll only have two left.” “Actually I need (Y/n) too. She promised to help me if the customer asks for you.” That never occurred but…THANK YOU KELLY!!!

I stand up and go over to Kelly, “That’s right, I completely forgot. Thank you Kelly for reminding me.” “Oh, well, um, ok I guess…” Kelly and I turn and I caught Jim’s eye. He was looking at me while shaking his head. I smile at him and follow Kelly to the Annex.

“Thank you so much Kelly! I don’t know how to thank you!” “Oh anytime girl! You’re honestly the only person I genuinely, actually like as a friend. Also, there’s no meeting…I was just going to shop for clothes online.” “Nice!” I high-five my sneaky friend. “How about as a thank you, I buy your clothes for you…?” She does – as I call it – a “Kelly squeal” and squishes me into a hug. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

*time skip two hours*

After 2 two hours of shopping and $650 later, we decide to go back to the conference room at the end of the “meeting”. We walk in and find everyone with…nationalities on their heads? I look at Jim with a “what the hell is going on?!” expression on my face; he just shrugs his shoulders with his cute smirk on his face. Wait…cute? Since when do I think his smirk is cute…? Michael sees that Kelly and I came back and walks up to us. This should be good.

In an Indian accent, Michael says, “(Y/n)! Kelly! How are you?!” “We just had the longest meeting—“ Still in an Indian accent, Michael utters, “Oh! Welcome to my convenience store. Would you like some googi googi?! I have some very delicious googi googi, only 99 cents plus tax. Try my googi googi! Try my googi googi! Try my googi googi! Try my –” Michael is cut off by Kelly slapping him. I stare at him in disbelief and go after Kelly. I catch up to her and hug her.

“Kelly? I’m so sorry Michael did that.” “It’s…it’s fine. I’m used to it. I should’ve expected it from him…at least I have all those clothes to look forward too…OH! (Y/N) YOU SHOULD TOTALLY COME OVER AND WE’LL HAVE A FASHION SHOW!!” Man…nothing can get that girl down. “Yeah sure…”

I walk back to my desk and start my next solitaire game. I look over to see Jim with a saddened look on his face. “Hey, what’s wrong?” He looks at me dejected. “Oh, um…I didn’t get the sale with Mr. Decker; another salesperson got it.” My heart fell when he said that. “Jim, oh I’m so sorry!” “it’s fine…it’s not like it’s a quarter of my years commission.” He puts the champagne bottle he was keeping to celebrate and puts it in Dwight’s drawer. My heart becomes even more dejected. He then gets up towards the break room. I get an idea & walk to the entrance of the office.

_“I have a plan. I hate that Dwight stole Jim’s sale & I may or may not have connections to a very big company. I’m very good friends with their CEO, who coincidentally was looking to switch to Dunder Mifflin since I work there. But since this job is just to keep me occupied with my time…I’m going to give the sale to Jim.” I smile at the camera, and the cameramen just smirk at me. “What?”_

*another time skip of 10 minutes*

I sit back at my desk waiting for Jim’s phone to ring. It finally rings and as Jim picks it up, I walk to the break room. That’s the only way I can keep from smiling. As I’m getting my coffee, I look over and see Jim looking ecstatic. It warms my heart to see him feeling happy…

Once I sit back down, Jim turns to me excitedly. “Hey, can I talk to you outside by the elevators?” “Yeah sure.”

We make our way to the elevator, and as soon as we get there, Jim picks me up in a hug and spins me around. I start laughing, throwing my arms around his neck. “What?! What’s got you so excited?” “I just got a new client! With Ford Motors! I just made a sale that will be 40% of my commission!!” “Oh my god! Congratulations!! I’m so happy for you!!”

_“Yes, I’m friends with the CEO of Ford Motor Company. He and my dad were really good friends and he’s like an uncle to me so…take that Dwight.” I shrug while smiling smugly._

“We have got to celebrate!” “Yes!” I hug him out of joy and feel him hugging back. I then notice that we’ve kind of just been holding each other. I then let go and look up at him. “We’ll let’s go to work so we can get to celebrating.” He seems a bit flustered and smiles, “Yeah! Yeah let’s do that.” I walk back to the office with a smile on my face.

Jim’s POV:

When (Y/n) hugged me…I just felt so happy. I got an even better sale than the one with Mr. Decker. I didn’t realize I was still holding her until she pulled away. She smiles at me and says, “We’ll let’s go to work so we can get to celebrating.”

My hearts still pounding from hugging her for so long, but I smile, “Yeah! Yeah let’s do that.” I watch her walk back to the office. I, I’m really in love with her. I know that someday she’ll be my wife and mother to my children. I just need to get the courage to ask her out.

But she probably won’t want me since I’m five years older than her. She’ll probably want someone around her age…Well, I better get back to work.

*time skip to end of meeting*

We’ve been in this meeting for a while. A little while ago, (Y/n) fell asleep on my shoulder. She looks so cute and innocent. I just fall for her more and more each day. Michael ends the meeting and I now have to wake her up.

“Um…Hey.” I lightly shrug my shoulder to wake her up. She stirs awake, “Hey, we can go.” “Ok, sorry for falling asleep on you.” “No problem.” She gets up and walks out the door.

_“Uh…not a bad day.” I look to the floor smiling and blushing._


	4. Health Care

(A/N): (f/r) means favorite restaurant

I can’t believe it. Wow…It’s been 9 years since my parents died. I’m just glad it’s on a Saturday so I don’t have to call into work and be hounded with questions from Dwight…again. I’m sitting on my sofa buried in a blanket cocoon, wearing my shark onesie, watching Disney movies eating strawberries with my precious Nutella. All of a sudden the doorbell rings, I jump since I’m not expecting anyone.

I climb out of my cocoon and crawl out of the cushion fort I built. Yes I’m 21 but I’ll always be a child at heart. My motto is, “Growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional.” Besides, it makes me feel better on this sad day for me. Anyways, I look through the peephole and see…Jim and Pam?

I open my door, “H-hey guys. What are you doing here?” “What are we doing here? I don’t know…Jim what are we doing here?” “Well, I think we were planning on having a last minute lazy day with our best friend so that she’s not alone on this day…but if she doesn’t want us here…I guess we can leave…” They both shrug and turn to walk away while I start laughing. “Get in here you two!!”

“We brought all your favorite sweets, favorite food from (f/r), your favorite drinks, and favorite chips.” “I only knew your favorite sweets…Jim knew all the rest. He even has a note in his phone of all your orders.” I look at Jim who looks like a deer in headlights. “Really? Oh that’s so sweet Jim!” I hug him tightly. I turn back to a smirking Pam, but choosing to ignore her smirk, I ask her, “Other than the ‘lazy day’, why didn’t you guys just call ahead?”

“Well, Jim and I realized that today is a really tough day for you…considering the circumstances so we figured it was our responsibility as your best friends to keep you happy and laughing the whole day.” “Aww that’s so sweet you guys…I guess we’ll need to make the cushion fort bigger then.” Jim starts to laugh, “How about you two go do that and I’ll put the food away…sound good?” He then took the bags and went into my kitchen.

Pam then turns to me, “How are you holding up?” I shrug my shoulders, “Eh, I’m dealing with it. I’m still upset that my parents aren’t here but…they wouldn’t want me to sit around crying over them. They’d want me to sit around and watch movies that make me laugh so hard that I start to cry!” We both share a laugh at that.

We finish extending the fort and Jim comes out with a bunch of food in his arms. Pam and I go over and help him because it was starting to fall out. We set up the food and started a movie marathon. We watched everything we could think of. At the end of the day, Pam had Roy pick her up, leaving Jim and I to finish our marathon.

“Oh this was fun! We need to do this again.” “Yes we do! So how are you?” I look at Jim with a smile, “I’m okay. I got to spend this day with my two best friends, eat, watch movies. What more could make me feel great?!” He chuckles at me. “Well, I’m glad we could make you feel better. I better get going, it’s getting late.”

“Oh, okay. Do you want any of the food left over?”

“Nah, I’m good. Plus, I know how much you love your (f/f)!”

“Trueee.”

I walk Jim to the door. “Well, see you Monday morning (L/n).” “See you Halpert. Let me know when you get home.” “I will. Bye.” “Bye!” I stand on my tiptoes and kiss my guys best friend on the cheek. I close the door, unknowingly leaving a blushing, flustered, frozen Jim Halpert behind it.

*Time skip to Monday*

I walk into work at 9:00…it’s too early to function. I should’ve ordered extra espresso shot in my coffee today. Right as I sit at my desk, Michael walks out and calls me to sit in with a meeting between him and Jan. I make my way in and smile at Jan.

“Hello (Y/n).”

“Hello Jan. How are you?”

“I’m…doing ok. How about yourself.”

“Eh, can’t complain.”

She nods in understanding as Michael and a cameraman walks in. Once everyone is settled, Jan proceeds to start. “So, which health plan have you decided on?” “I am going to go with the best, Jan. I am going to go with the one with the acupuncture, therapeutic massage, you know, the works.”

_“Ok, I’ve got to hand it to Michael…that sounds like a great plan. I might even purposefully hurt my back to get that treatment.”_

Jan looks at Michael confused, “Wait, acupuncture? None of the plans have acupuncture. Have you looked at the closely Michael?” “I think it was you who didn’t look closely enough at the Gold Plan.” “The Gold Plan? I’m not even on that plan.” “Well, I’d recommend it. It’s very good.”

Jan glances at me and then looks back at Michael, “Michael—” “You gotta crack these things open.” “You know the whole reason that we’re doing this, is to save money. So you just need to pick a provider and choose the cheapest plan.” Wait…what?! I turn to Michael who looks saddened.

“Well, that is kind of a tough assignment. Um…It’s not gonna be popular decision around the old orifice.”

“It’s your job. So…”

“Well, it’s a suicide mission, you know.”

“Michael…maybe…I mean…Sometimes a manager, like yourself, has to deliver the bad news to the employees. I do it all the time.”

“*scoffs* When have you ever done that?” Michael…what do you think she’s doing right now?

“I’m doing it right now. To you.”

Michael turns to me, “(Y/n), I think you should keep this on the down low…not mention anything…also could you please get me something from the vending machine?” I sigh, “Ok, sure.”

After giving Michael his snack, I go over to Pam’s desk to talk about anything other than work. A little later, Jim then walks up to talk to us. “Hey!” “Hey.” “Hola!” They both look at me with confused smiles. “What? I didn’t want to copy you guys. I like being original.” I shrug at them.

“No, no it’s fine. Cute even.” I look to Jim with a slight blush and tuck my hair behind my ear, a nervous tick of mine. Hold up…why am I nervous? “Um, thanks.” I turn to Pam, who’s smiling like she slept with a hanger in her mouth. I give her a questioning look but brush it off.

_“He admitted she was being cute…that’s a big step for Jim…is this what a proud mother feels like? When her child accomplishes something great?” Pam look excitedly into the camera._

“Ok, so last night on ‘Trading Spouses’, there’s…have you guys seen it?” “No. We have lives.” Pam and I say in unison. “Interesting. What’s that like?” “You should try it sometime.” “Wow. But then who would watch my TV? That is—” “Your problem.” We all start laughing.

Michael then calls Jim into his office. After a while, Jim comes back out. “Dwight, Michael wants to see you.” Dwight immediately jumps up and runs into Michael’s office. I lean over to Jim, “What was that about?” “Michael wanted me to pick a new health care plan, but I’m so not doing that so I pawned it over to Dwight.” My eyes grow wide, and Jim looks at me weirded out. “What?” “We’re all doomed. You’ll understand soon.” Jim nods at me confused.

Soon, Dwight goes into the conference room and puts up a sign that said, “Dwight Shrute Workspace.” I roll my eyes. This is gonna be a long day.

After a while, Dwight starts handing out memos on the new health care plan. It’s…it’s horrible. I look over at Pam and Jim. We all think the same thing and confront Dwight.

“Dwight, what—“ “Uh, knock, please. Please knock. This is an office.” I turn back to the sign, “It’s says ‘workspace’.” “That’s the same thing.” Jim pipes up, “If it’s the same thing, then why did you write ‘workspace’?”

Dwight has no comeback, “Just knock, please? As a sign of respect for your superior.” In unison, Jim and I say, “You are not our superior.” “Oh gee, then why do I have an office?” “I thought it was a workspace?” Pam interrupts our banter, “Ok. Dwight, are you really in charge of picking the health care plan?” “Yes and my decision is final.” “This is a ridiculously awful plan. Because you cut everything.” “Aww, times are tough, Pam. Deal with it.”

Jim cuts in, “You cut more than you had to, didn’t you?” “Sure.” “Well, why did you do that? You work here, don’t you want good insurance?” “Don’t need it. Never been sick. Perfect immune system.”

I join in, “Ok, um, if you’ve never been sick, then that means you don’t have any antibodies.” “I don’t need them, (L/n). Superior genes. I’m a Schrute. And superior brain power. Through concentration, I can raise and lower my cholesterol at will.” Pam looks confused, “Why would you want to raise your cholesterol?” “So I can lower it.”

*Time skip*

After multiple complaints to Dwight and Michael, Dwight comes out of his workspace. “Ok, everyone. Gather round. Step forward. It has been brought to my attention that some of you are unhappy with my plan.” “All of us are.” Dwight glares at me for interrupting him and I just smile sweetly back at him to rile him up even further. “So what I’d like you to do is to fill this out and write down any diseases you have that you might want covered and I’ll see what I can do.”

“Ok, you know what Dwight? We can’t write our diseases down for you because that’s confidential.” Dwight then looks to Jim, “Ok, well, I didn’t say to write your name down, did I? Fill it out, leave it anonymous. Or, don’t write any disease down at all and it won’t be covered. Sound fair? Good. I’ll be in my office.” At the same time, Jim and I say, “Workspace.” 

I grab three sheets and drop one at Jim’s desk, then take Pam one. “Hey, how about we mess with Dwight?” Pam perks up, “I’m all ears.” “Ok, so—” Pam interjects looking behind me, “Where are you going?” I turn to see Michael leaving. “Um, headed out. Part of my busy day, you know. Meetings.” I look at him disbelieving while he tries to find the door handle. “Couldn’t find the knob.” He chuckles.

I turn back to Pam, “Anyway…” “So what’s your plan?” “Two words. Fake. Diseases.” She grins like the Cheshire Cat. “Let’s do it!” After a time, Jim walks over, to fill out his sheet with us. “Wait, what are you writing? Don’t either of you write Ebola or Mad Cow Disease…” We look at him confused, “Because I’m suffering from both.” Pam and I crack up. “We’re inventing new diseases. Courtesy of (Y/n)’s brilliant mind.” Jim turns to me, “I’m impressed (L/n).” I curtsy at him, “Thank you! Thank you! I’ll be here for the rest of your life!” “I sure hope so.” We make eye contact and…it seemed like neither of us wanted to look away. We both then look away at the same time, and Pam seems to be holding back a smile.

_“Has…has Jim always had such intense, comforting eyes? Like, you just look into his eyes and then anything that’s bothering you just…dissipates?” I look at the camera with a confused, yet dreamy look._

_“Ok, that short, but sweet, moment between Jim and (Y/n)…I’m getting goosebumps…they’ll have adorable kids. I call godmother! And I’ll have digital proof that I called dibs on that.” Pam starts jumping in her seat like a kid on a sugar high._

Pam starts, “So, let’s say my teeth turn to liquid and then, they drip down the back of my throat. What would you call that?” “I thought you said you were inventing new diseases? That’s Spontaneous Dental Hydroplosion.” Pam and I nod fascinated, “Nice.” “Thank you.”

A while after giving the forms back to Dwight, I hear him yell, “Damnit! Damnit Jim!” He storms out of his workspace upset. “All right, who did this? I’m not mad. I just want to know who did it so I can punish them.” I feign confusion, “What are you talking about?” “Uh, someone forged, uh, medical information and that is a felony.”

Jim backs me up, “Ok, whoa. ‘Cause that is a pretty intense accusation. How do you know that they’re fake?” Dwight scoffs, “Uh, leprosy? Flesh eating bacteria. Hot-dog fingers. Government-created killer nanorobot infection.” A few of us around the office start chuckling, even Stanley!

“You two did this, didn’t you?” Dwight asks Jim and I. “Absolutely not./What? No!” we reply. “Yes you did!” “No we didn’t!” “I know it was one of you two. Fine. You know what? I’ll have to interview each and every one of you until the perpetrator makes him or herself known. And until that time…there will be no health care coverage for any one!” Dwight dramatically rushes back into his office.

Jim turns to me, “Killer nanorobots?” I shrug, “It’s an epidemic.” Later, Jim gets called into Dwight’s workspace. After 3 minutes, he comes out and locks Dwight in the conference room. He tosses me the keys and I put them in a drawer at Pam’s desk.

While Pam takes a break, I’m lounging around her area. Jim’s work phone starts ringing, “Jim Halpert…Who is this?...No, you can’t fire me.” As I realize he’s talking to Dwight, I ring him up from Pam’s phone.

“Ok, can you hold on? I’m getting another call. Jim Halpert.”

“Hey Jim, it’s (Y/n).”

“Hey (Y/n)! How are you?”

“I’m great! I’m not interrupting anything, am I?”

“Nope, not really.”

“Sweet! Well right now I’m watching a co-worker try to get out of his workspace; he’s locked inside.”

“Oh really? Sounds like a great prank.”

“It is; the pranker is another co-worker of mine. We both share a mutual distaste for the prankee.”

“Sounds like you two have a lot in common.”

“Well he is my best friend so I would hope so.”

“Awesome! Well I better get back to ‘work’. See you later?”

“Definitely. See ya!”

We both hang up and then look at each other laughing. He has such a great laugh.

Pam comes back from her break and we switch out. When my break is over, I see Michael looking at Dwight who’s still locked up. He just walks into his office, not even attempting to get him out. Jim then turns to Dwight and throws a…brick? I walk over and see it’s an ice cream sandwich.

I take it and sit down at my desk. I start to unwrap it when I hear someone clear their throat. Looking up, I am met with Jim’s expectant look. “What?” “That’s my sandwich.” “Well you threw it so it’s fair game.” “No, it’s mine.” We hold a stare and I bite into the sandwich. He just chuckles at me, “You are something else (L/n).” “That’s why you love me!” I wink to exaggerate my weirdness and he seems to be a bit choked up. “Y-y-yeah…right…he-he-he.”

_“Ok, why is Jim stuttering? We have normal conversations all the time, but every once in a while, he’ll stutter. I’ve noticed that he’s been doing it more and more recently. I mean it’s adorably cute but I just don’t understand. I know him like the back of my hand, it’s a nervous tick that he has…what could possibly have him be nervous around me?” I sit there confused._

_“She said my stuttering was adorably cute? Wow…” Jim looks away blushing with a soft smile on his face._

We’re all called into the conference room by Dwight. “I am now going to read out loud your submitted medical conditions. When you hear yours read, please raise your hand to indicate that it is real. If you do not raise your hand, it will not be covered.” Stanley raises his hand, “What about confidentiality?” Dwight responds, “You know what? You have forfeited that privilege. I have tried to treat you all as adults, but obviously I am the only adult here. Number one: inverted penis.” Did he just say what I think he said?

Meredith raises her hand, “Could you mean vagina? Because if you do, I want that covered.” “I thought your vagina was removed during your hysterectomy?” “A uterus is different from a vagina. I still have a vagina.” What the hell?! I turn to Jim with a shocked look on my face. He just shakes his head and I hide in his shoulder.

We continue on, “Ok, great. Dermatitis. Thank you Angela. I’ll make sure that’s covered. Ok, now. Who wrote this, hysterical one? Anal fissures?” Kevin speaks up, “That’s a real thing.” “Yeah, but no one here has it.” “Someone has it.” Oh poor Kevin! I really hate Dwight for this.

It’s the end of the day, but everyone is waiting for Michael to come out of his office. When he finally gets the courage to leave the safety of his office. We all just stare at him. Oscar is the one to break the silence. “Well?” “Well, what? You could be referring to anything.” Oscar take a breath as if to calm down. “Ok, the health care plan.” “Why did you put Dwight in charge of that? He did a horrible job.” Pam voices her thought.

“Uh, Dwight? Did you raise benefits?” “I most certainly did not.” “Oh come on! That’s horrible! Aaahh…Thanks, Dwight, for a crappy plan. Ah, damn! Oh, mmm, I wish I had time to change it, but Jan needs it by five, and…what time is it? What time is it? Ah it’s after five. Oh, oh it’s awful. So, well, ok. See you guys on Monday.”

Angela step forward, “What about the surprise?” Michael looks stumped for a second. “Oh…yes. Exactly. Thank you Angela, for reminding me. Terrific. Um, before I tell everybody what the big surprise is, would you like to tell me what you think the big surprise is?” “We all think you don’t have a surprise.” Stanley states.

Michael tries to save himself, “All right, I have some news for you. There is a big surprise. And…here it is. Here we go. And the big surprise is…Brrrrrr!! Drum roll…Brrrrrr! Brrrrr!” And nothing.

We all walk out not surprised. As I walk to my car, I hear Pam jogging up to me. “Hey, Roy’s going out of town for the weekend and I know this is last minute but could I stay with you? I just don’t want to be alone.” “Of course girl! You’re welcome anytime, you know that.” She hugs me, “Great! Hey let’s go to the bar, I’ll go invite Jim and drive to your place so I can drop my car there.” “Ok, I’ll see you there.” I then drive off to my place to wait for Pam. I’m so excited for this weekend.

Pam’s POV

When (Y/n) drives off, I run to Jim before he gets into the car. “Hey Jim!” He looks out his window, “Yeah?” “You want to come to the bar?” “Hmm. Idk, I kinda just wanted to stay in tonight.” “(Y/n)’s gonna be there…”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“I’ll be there.” Jim gives in and starts to drive to the bar. I walk over to my car with a smile on my face.

_“I want my two best friends happy. And I know they’ll be happy together. I’m going to get them to start dating each other. Even if it’s the last thing I do!” She smiles mischievously._


	5. Alliance

I walk into the office tired as hell. My aunt has decided that she is going to try & sue me because of her nonexistent funds...good luck with that Auntie...

As I sit down at my desk, I notice that Jim isn’t at his desk like normal, which is weird because he’s always here before me. I walk over to talk to Pam, “Hey Sis, how are you?” “I’m doing fine, just dealing with the ‘lawsuit’ my aunt set up.” She rolls her eyes, “She never thought that her constant partying would eventually cause her to be broke?” “Oh no she did...she was just banking on me being her source of money.”

We talk a bit more before Michael comes out and asks us to meet him in his office. We go in to see the camera crew give us sympathetic looks. I walk over to them quickly, “What is he doing now?” “Just wait…” they reply. Pam and I sit down and await Michael’s shenanigans.

“Get set for Operation Morale Improvement, starring Michael Scott. Now, I think I have had a little stroke of genius in that I have had my assistant and receptionist (Y/n) and Pam – smile girls—I have had them go out and find out whose birthday is coming up so we can have a little celebration for them. Not Bad! Not Bad at all. All right, and the birthday person is…drum roll, please! Who is the birthday person? Who is it? Who’s birthday is it?”

As he looks at us expectantly, Pam speaks up, “Um actually, we don’t have any staff birthdays coming up.” “Next person on the…calendar.” I look at it, “Oh, okay, that would be Meredith. But her birthday isn’t until next month.” “Um…uh, okay, well great. Well, you know, it’ll be a surprise.” Michael still surprises me and Pam, even after everything we’ve already seen from him.

“You still wanna have a party?” “Yeah, why not? Sure. Go ahead, live a little. C’mon Pam. C’mon (Y/n). C’mon, shake it up. Shake it up. Shake it up!” After a bad Star Trek impression, Pam and I are released, I see Jim at his desk. “Good morning, Halpert.” “Good Morning, (L/N).” I sit at my desk and see a Starbucks bag on my desk. I open it and find my usual, I look to Jim who’s smiling at me. “You know me so well, Halpert” “Of course I do.”

After I finished my breakfast, Angela came up to me, “We’re meeting in the conference room to plan the party. Come on.” I glance at Jim with a ‘help me’ expression and he just smiles. I glare at him, while walking away.

The “Party Planning Committee” that I am reluctantly apart of – thanks Pam – is seated at the conference table. Phyllis speaks up, “Well, uh, for decorations, maybe we could – it’s stupid. Forget it.” Angela acknowledges her, “What?”

“I was gonna say maybe we could have streamers, but that’s dumb, everybody has streamers. Never mind.”

“No yeah, I think that’s a good idea. What color do you guys think?”

“Well, there’s green, uh, blue, yellow, red-“

Pam speaks up. “How about green?”

“I think green is kind of whore-ish.” I look down at my green shirt.

_“This was tough. I suggested we flip a coin, but Angela said she doesn’t like to gamble. Of course, by saying that, she was gambling that (Y/n) or I wouldn’t smack her.” I look at Pam with a smirk, “I’m rubbing off on you aren’t I?” She chuckles, “Sadly, yes.” “I knew it.” I look to the camera smugly._

Michael, as if on que, walks in disrupting our “meeting”. “These are my party-planning beeyatches. Pulled off an amazing ‘80s party last year. Off the hook! So I was thinking, if you haven’t already gotten a cake, um, maybe going for one of those ice cream cakes from Baskin-Robbins. They’re very good. Very delicious.” Angela pipes in, “Meredith’s allergic to dairy, so…” “She’s not the only one that’s gonna be eating it, right? And I think everybody likes ice cream cake. It’s not just about her, so…”

I look at my boss with disbelief, “Michael, it’s HER birthday-“ “Mint chocolate chip! Mint chocolate chip would be good! How about mint chocolate chip?” He walks out of the room, I turn to the girls, “go ahead and get Michael his ice cream cake, I’ll go get a small regular cake for Meredith.”

They nod their heads, and I get up and go over to my desk and get ready to leave. Jim turns to me, “So Dwight came up to me and asked me for an alliance with him.” I pause and turn to him, “An alliance? What does that even mean?” “I think it has something to do with Survivor, but I’m not sure. Um, I know that it involves spying on people and we may build a fort in accounting-“ “Jim? Hey.” We turn to see Dwight staring at us. “Hey-“ “Hi, (Y/n). Listen, could I talk to you a second about the…paper products?” “Um, sure.” Jim turns back to me, “Are you heading somewhere?” “Yeah.” “Do you mind if I come with?” “No, not at all. I’ll wait for you downstairs.”

*Jim POV*

I watch as (Y/n) walks out the door, her (h/l), (h/c) hair swaying with each step, when Dwight hits my arm. “Come on Jim, you can drool over her when you meet her in the lobby. I need to talk to you about…paper.” I look at him, “Alright, I’m coming…and I don’t drool over her.” “Mm-hmm.”

We make it into the kitchen and Dwight swiftly turns to me, “Did you tell (Y/n) about the alliance?”

“What?! No!”

“Just now?”

“Oh, no, no, no, no, Dwight, no. I’m using her, for the alliance. Who knows the most information about this office? (Y/n) and Pam. But (Y/n) is in more meetings with Michael recently than Pam.”

“Right, that’s good. Good, pursue this.”

“Well, I’m trying to.”

“Mhm.”

“Do you see what I’m doing?”

“Mhm.”

“But listen, I’m going to have to talk to her a lot, alright? And there may be chatting, and giggling. And you gotta just pretend to ignore it. Wipe it away.”

“Done.”

“All right.”

I leave Dwight to his…paranoia, and go to meet (Y/n). When I get downstairs, I see her waiting for me.

“Ready?”

“Ready. Do you want me to drive?”

“No, I can drive (L/n).”

“If you’re sure.”

“Definitely. Where are we going anyway?” 

“We’re going to get a cake—actually two cakes for Meredith’s surprise birthday party.”

“Oh, I didn’t know that Meredith’s birthday was today.”

“It’s not.”

“Then why—”

“Michael.”

“Ah got it.”

We get into my car and I let (Y/n) take control of the radio. She find her favorite station, (f/r/s) and starts jamming like she did at the Panic! At The Disco concert I took her too. I have to admit, I got jealous when Brendon Urie winked at her and she freaked out. (A/N: This actually happened to a friend of mine.) She looks so cute as she sings and dances to the song on the radio.

Pulling up to the bakery, she turns to me, “Do you want to stay in the car or come with?” “It doesn’t look too crowded, I’ll just stay here.” “Ok.” She gets out and goes inside, quickly skimming the cakes and lights up when she sees one, gets it and rushes out. “I know Meredith will love this cake.” “What kind is it?” “Rum cake.” I nod understandably, “Why two different ones, though?” “Michael wanted to get an ice cream cake from Baskin-Robbins, which is our next stop, but Meredith is allergic to dairy so.” “But, it’s her birthday…” “Exactly!”

She laughter is so melodious and I just get so lost in her eyes. “-im? Jim?” I shake out of my daze, “Huh?” “I asked if you know where the Baskin-Robbins is…are you okay? You kind of zoned out on me.” “Yeah, yeah, I’m okay.” “Alright.”

_“Is it possible, to love someone so much that…just their smile and laugh can be so enchanting that you get mesmerized to the point that everything else disappears?” I slightly smile at the camera_

*Time Skip*

(Y/n) POV

Once Jim and I got back with both cakes, I put both of them in the fridge. Pam then came up to me, “So you took Jim with you to get the cakes, hmm?” “Yeah, I did. I was gonna go by myself, but he offered to come with. He told me more about this ‘alliance’ that Dwight had set up with him, so we came up with a plan to mess with him.” “You two are two peas in a pod.” “Yes, yes we are.”

_“If Jim and (Y/n) don’t get together soon…I’m gonna blow up like an atomic bomb.” Pam stares at the camera with a frustrated face._

I stop by Jim’s desk on my way to mine, “Hey Jim, can I talk to you for a second?” “Sure what’s up?” “I don’t know. I’m just, like, going a little crazy ‘cause I keep overhearing all these conversations between Michael and Corporate about, like, staff issues.” “Oh, no.” “Yeah, he’s making me take notes on these meetings and I’m, like, “These people are my friends.” “Right.” “But he’s all like, ‘This is confidential. You can’t tell anybody.’ But, I don’t know, I just feel like I wanna-just promise me you’re not gonna say anything.” “I will not. I’m not gonna tell anybody.” “Okay.” “This is between you and me.” “Yeah.” As I sit back at my desk, I hear Dwight whisper, “Jackpot.” God, he’s too easy.

_“That was beautiful. All her idea, too. Awesome. She’s so great.” He shyly looks away._

It’s finally time for Meredith’s party and everyone is getting their hats and getting situated. I notice that Jim and Dwight are no where to be seen. Ryan then goes to get Michael who rushes out. Angela then brings Meredith in and we all yell, “SURPRISE!”. She thought we were talking Angela, so she told her, “Oh surprise!” “No, it’s uh-“ “It’s surprise, Meredith! One, Two..” and then we attempted to sing happy birthday. Key word: attempted.

We finally get to eat the cake I picked up. I still haven’t given Meredith her rum cake yet because Michael won’t let me leave our circle. “You were surprised, weren’t you?” Michael asks her. “Yes.” “You looked freaked, man. We said, ‘Surprise!’, and you were like, ‘What? What the hell’s goin’ on here?’ Good cake. Why don’t you have some of this cake?” “I-I can’t, um-“ “Come on, a little bit, little bit!” “No, no, I can’t eat dairy.” “Oh, right. Oh, god. Too bad, it’s so good.” “Yeah, it makes me sick.” “You know what? If I were allergic to dairy, I think I’d kill myself. ‘Cause this is way, way too good.”

Stunned, I just pull Meredith aside. “I am so sorry about him, we all tried to tell him.” “No, I get it. It’s how he is.” “I did get you a cake though, for you to eat at home. Rum cake.” “Have I ever told you that you’re my favorite person in this office?” “No, I don’t think so.” “Well, you are.” “Awesome…”

I walk over to Jim who has two pieces of cake. “Hungry are we? Pranking Dwight takes that much out of you?” We share a laugh. “No, I didn’t know if you had a piece yet so I grabbed one in case.” “Well, I haven’t yet so thank you.” “You’re welcome.” “Oh, how’s pranking Dwight coming along?” “He’s in a box.” “He’s in a box?!” “(Y/n), he’s in a box. He’s downstairs, in a box, on the floor, near the shelves. I’m serious. Go down there and work your magic.” “On it. Don’t let Kevin eat my cake.”

I rush to the warehouse and find the box that Dwight is hiding in. I walk over and pretend to call someone, “Hey, where are you? Yeah, we were supposed to meet here. What? Oh, my gosh! That ties in perfectly with something that Michael was telling me earlier! I just don’t know what some of the people in, like, accounting are gonna do. It said specifically that—” I get cut off my Dwight falling over in his box. I take off before I burst out laughing.

When I get back upstairs, I overhear Jim and Michael talking. “Maybe you’ll give more than six dollars next time.” “Yeah, well, (Y/n) and I share it so, three dollars a mile is gonna end up being like $50 each, so…God, I can’t even calculate what you’re gonna have to give.” Michael sits there for a beat, “Is Oscar around?” He walks away, and I walk up. “How much did he put?” “$25.00” “$25.00?!” “Mhm.” Oh Michael, you idiot.

After a terrible moment of reading Meredith’s card, once again, Michael’s fault, I go and sit at Pam’s desk. Jim then rushes to me, “Okay, okay, I have something that totally tops the box!” “Oh, tell me, tell me!” “Okay, I have just convinced Dwight, that he needs to go to Stanford, and spy on our other branch. No, no, no, no, but before he does so, I told him that he should dye his hair to go undercover!” “That’s perfect!” I laugh so much and lean on him, holding his hand with his other arm around me.

“If we can get him to drive to Connecticut and put peroxide in his hair—” “What the hell is this?! Trying to cop a feel or something, Halpert?!” I feel myself ripped from Jim’s grip, I turn to the culprit to see Roy. “No, dude. No, dude I-that’s not—" “Roy, it’s me, (Y/n)! I’m not Pam!” “Roy!!”

Roy swivels around to see Pam looking at him with a shocked expression. He looks to see that he’s still holding my arm and quick let’s go. “Oh, my god! (Y/n) I’m sorry. I thought you were Pam.” “How? I’m (shorter/taller) than Pam, my hair is (longer/shorter) and (h/c)…” Pam walks up to Roy, “I think you should go.” “How are you gonna get a ride home though?” “Oh I forgot to tell you, I’m staying at (Y/n)’s tonight.” “Again? Come on, Pam—” “Please go…” We all just stare at them and Roy finally leaves.

Jim turns me around with a very concerned look on his face. “Are you okay?! Are you hurt?!” “I’m fine don’t worry, I’m fine.” “Oh my god, (Y/n), I’m so sorry!” “It’s alright, don’t stress about it. And I guess you’re staying at my place tonight?” “Yeah, sorry, I just don’t want to be with Roy at the moment…especially after that stunt.” She hugs me real tight. Oh, what would I do without her?

*Time skip*

Pam’s POV

(Y/n) and I are making some snacks in her kitchen, when she reaches up for a glass and I spot something on her arm. “Hey (Y/n), what’s that on your arm?” She looks at me confused, “What are you talking about?” I grab her arm and see her skin is bruising purple. “Oh my god (Y/n)! Isn’t this the arm Roy grabbed?!” She looks shocked, “Y-yeah it is. And he thought I was you…he would’ve done this to you…” We look at each other worriedly.

(Y/n) falls asleep, but I’m still awake. I can’t believe Roy grabbed her arm so hard that she’s bruising…how could he be so rough? I’ll have to be careful from now on.


	6. Basketball

Another day, another cup of (coffee/tea), another day of Michael…why do I subject myself to this again? Oh, right! My best friends, I can’t let them suffer him alone. Today something was happening at work, but Michael didn’t expand on what it was to me when he called me last night. So I get to work and see that Jim has a duffle bag.

“Morning, what’s the duffle bag for?” “Oh, there’s a change of clothes in there for the basketball game. And morning to you too.” “Basketball game?” “Yeah, Michael called me last night saying that we were playing against the warehouse guys.” I nod at him, “Ok then. I hope Michael doesn’t embarrass himself.” “(Y/n) you’re going to be recording the whole game in case he does.” I smile fondly at him, “You know me so well Jim.” He chuckles.

Dwight comes out of Michael’s office and sees me sitting at my desk, “You’re late again (L/n).” “You’re annoying as ever Shrute.” He glares at me and I smile sweetly at him. He then brings out this huge whiteboard, I glance at Jim and we just share a confused look.

“So we need someone to work this Saturday and I think that should be…Jim and (Y/n).” “God, this is so sad. This is the smallest amount of power I’ve ever seen go to someone’s head. Phyllis, can you believe this?” “Keep me out of it.” I look at Pam with an exasperated look on my face.

_“My fiancé has plans for us this Saturday so I really hope Dwight doesn’t make me work. Maybe I should sleep with him…” I look at Pam with a horrified expression along with the rest of the camera crew. “I’m kidding. Kidding. Totally kidding.” “Oh thank god! You had me there for a second.” Pam looks confused, “Wait…you think I’d do that?!” “No, that’s why I was so horrified.” Pam nods at my words._

I go over to Pam’s desk to see what she wants me to get for lunch, to find her on the phone. “No, I know that the warranty’s expired but isn’t it supposed to last longer than two years if it isn’t defective? Ok, fine, three years.” I look at Jim and give him a frustrated look.

_“Her toaster oven broke, which she got at her engagement shower. For a wedding that still has yet to be set. And that was three years ago. (Y/n)’s not happy about that.”_

_“Damn straight I’m not! I understand that some people have longer engagements about as long as Pam and Roy have...hell I have friends who have been engaged for four years, but they have an outstanding relationship! They’re saving up because they want to have their wedding in Italy, where they met. But they don’t have the best paying jobs, and they want to pay for everyone’s flights and hotel rooms. Pam and Roy haven’t gotten married because Roy is an ass.” I say with a sassy look._

Michael comes in and says, “Are we ready for the game?” Just about everyone groans. “Yeah. I know. Grumble, grumble, but you would follow me to the ends of the earth, grumbling all the way. Like that dwarf from ‘Lord Of The Rings’.” Dwight and I say in unity, “Gimli.” Michael points to Dwight, “Nerd. That is why you’re not on the team.” He then points to me, “Hot. I like a nerdy girl.” My eye widen frightfully and I look at Pam, who is trying not to laugh, I then hit her under her desk.

_“What? I love movies and books like Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Star Trek, Maze Runner, The Hunger Games, etc.” I shrug at the camera._

_“I never thought I’d say this…but I agree with Michael, a nerdy girl can be hot. And it doesn’t help my case that (Y/n) is like that.” Jim’s cheeks start to tinge pink._

“So let’s put together a starting line-up, shall we? Stanley, of course.” “I’m sorry?” “What do you play, center?” “Why, ‘of course’? What’s that supposed to mean?” Michael pauses, “I don’t know. I don’t remember saying that.” Jim pipes up, “I heard it.” “Well, people hear a lot of things, man. Um other starters, me, of course I heard it that time.”

Phyllis turns, “I’d like to play, if it’s just for fun. I played basketball in school.” Michael looks a tad repulsed, “Um, yeah…who else? We have Jim. We have Ryan, the new guy, right? Untested. Willing to prove himself now. A lot of passion, a lot of heart.” “I’m getting paid to skip lunch, right?” “Yes.” “Okay.” “Yes! This is business. The business of team building and morale boosting. Uh who else?”

Oscar says, “I can help out if you need me.” “I will use your talents come baseball season my friend. Or if we box.” I just shake my head. Kevin then offers to play, “I have a hoop in my driveway.” “No.” “I have a sports bra.” Phyllis tries again. “No, no, ridiculous.” Dwight also tries, “Michael, look.” He shoots his pencil holder and aims for the trash can, and misses. “Close. All right. Uh, me, Stan the man, Jim, Ryan, and Dwight. Sorry Phyllis.”

Dwight rejoices, “Yes! Can I be captain?” “No I’m team captain.” “Can I be team manager?” “No, I’m the team manager, you can be assistant to the team manager.” “Assistant team manager?” “No.” “Ok, we’ll see who’s working this weekend then.” “Jim, you’re in charge of vacations schedule now.” “Oh my God.” “Threat neutralized.”

I turn to Pam, “Did that just happen?” “Yup.” I feel something hit my head, and turn around to find a piece of paper on the floor. “Off the backboard!” I look at Michael, “Please don’t throw garbage at me.”

“Oh, (Y/n) with a zinger. Hey, Pam, how would you like to be our cheerleader today? You know, some, ah, pigtails? A little, ah, halter top, you could tie that up. And you know, something a little, just, youthful, for a chance. Just this once?”

“I don’t think so Michael. Besides, I can’t cheer against my fiancé.” Jim voices, “I’ll do it. Wear a little flouncy skirt if you want, and—” “Yeah I bet you would. Just try not to be too gay on the court. And by gay I mean, um, you know, not in a homosexual way at all. I mean the uh, you know, like the bad-at-sports way. I think that goes without saying.”

Pam says, “Maybe Angela would cheerlead.” I look at Pam with a “really?” look on my face. “I’ll do it.” Phyllis is really trying. “Oh yuck! That’s worse than you playing.” We all look at Michael with shocked expressions. “’Cause we need you as an alternate in case somebody gets hurt. That’s where we need you! Blessed be those who sit and wait. You made it, suit up, you’re on the team! All right, cool! Very good.”

“Why doesn’t (Y/n) be a cheerleader? She was one in high school.” I slowly turn to Pam with a “are you kidding me?” appearance. “Oh yes! (Y/n)! I’d love to see your body in a cheerleading outfit!” “No Michael.” “Are you sure? You’d be helping me live out a fantasy.” I look at him with a horrified face, “No Michael. I’m not cheerleading. Especially when you say that.” I say, mumbling the last part. “Oh well. Your loss. That coulda led to this.” He points to himself and then goes into his office. 

Looking at Jim, I shudder at Michaels words. “I feel violated, like nothing happened, but I’m still uncomfortable.” He just shakes his head. Soon enough, everyone is getting ready to either play or watch the game. I’m just watching.

_“Basketball? It was kind of my thing in high school. And I’m, yeah, I’m looking forward to playing. You know, I think I’m gonna impress a few people in here. Like maybe, (Y/n).”_

“You coming down?”

“Yeah, Pam already went down so I’m forwarding the phones.”

“You gonna wish me luck?”

“Yeah, you’re gonna need it.”

“Whoa! Is that trash talk from (Y/n)?!”

“I’m just saying, as much as I hate – I mean, don’t like Roy, he’s very competitive.”

“Oh…”

“And he wants to take the Waverunners to the lake this Saturday and I don’t want Pam to go by herself so…”

“Well, I’m going to the outlet mall on Saturday, so if you wanna save big on brand names and Roy has to work, which he will, because I’m also competitive, you should feel free to come along.”

“Um, I think I’m gonna be up at the lake.”

“I think I’ll see you at the mall. Yeah.”

*Time skip*

Time for the game…oh this won’t end well. Since I wouldn’t cheerlead, Michael has made me the “Office Mascot”. So I’m over by their huddle. “Ok, Ryan, you have Darryl. I have Roy.” “Really? I though I’d take Roy.” Oh Jim… “Actually, I think Roy is their best player not Lonny. So, Dwight, you uh, have the East German gal. Uh, who else we got…um…ok, all right, you guys.”

Dwight takes his shirt off and I am suddenly pulled into a hard chest. I recognize the spicy cinnamon and calming lavender scent and hug the person. “Ok, we’ll be skins!” “Aw, come on Dwight.” “What? Shirts on or off?” “On. Just put it on.” “You sure?” “Yes.”

As Dwight puts his shirt on, Jim releases me, “Thank you!” “No one should be subject to that…especially you. That’d traumatize you for life.” I then smile and bop his nose.

I then go over and sit down to watch the show. “Uh, Pam? You kind of have your foot in both camps, why don’t you do the, uh, jump ball ok?” “Don’t listen to him Pam. Trust me, tip it my way or you’re sleeping in the car.” I glare at Roy, “You make her sleep in the car and I’ll personally castrate you in your sleep.” 

_“You guys know how I am, I could care less about what people think of me. But you threaten my family, with the exception of my aunt_ , _I will hurt people. I may not know karate, but I know crazy.”_

After a while, and a few fouls, unsportsmanlike conduct, and Michael acting like an idiot, the game is over. Michael tried to get the warehouse to work on Saturday, but Michael being the moron he is, chickened out.

So we’re all at our desks. Michael walks out of his office, “Hey, what a game, huh? What a game.” “What time do we have to come in?” Oscar asks. “Come one. Let’s not be gloomy here man. We’re all in this together. We’re a team. You know what? Screw corporate, nobody’s coming in tomorrow. You have the day off. Like coming in an extra day is gonna prevent us from being downsized. Have a good weekend.”

Walking to the car with Jim, he turns to me, “So you’re still going to the lake with Pam and Roy?” I shake my head, “Nah, Pam’s decided to go visit her mom instead. So I’m all alone this weekend.” “Well…how about we have a movie marathon? We’ll watch all your favorites! All eight Harry Potter movies, all three Lord of The Rings, all three of The Hobbit, and even all 23 Marvel movies.” (A/n: That would be my perfect weekend…or week. LOL.)

I turn to Jim excitedly, “REALLY?! HELL YEAH!! That’ll be quite a feat to try and accomplish. You go home and pack enough lounge clothes for the weekend; it doesn’t make sense for you to leave every night just to come back so you’ll just have to stay the whole weekend. I’ll go to the store to stock up on food.” He laughs, “Ok, sounds like a plan.” “Bye! See you in a few.” I stand on my tiptoes and kiss his cheek and run to the car.

Jim POV:

She kissed me…again…on the cheek…oh god I sound like a little boy who has a crush on the popular girl at school. The camera men look at me with smug faces. “What?” “You’re whipped man. And we can’t wait to see how this turns out.”

Wow, even they think there’s something between us. I hope they’re right. But for right now…I get to enjoy a weekend sleepover with (Y/n). Not a bad end to the week.


	7. Hot Girl

Oh, I’m so excited! My childhood best friend and her fiancé are coming into town! I haven’t seen them in such a long time! I get to pick them up after work.

Adeline and Jackson have been together for the longest time. I even got them together! Jackson is like an overprotective big brother…he actually has assigned himself the title, “(Y/n)’s Overprotective Big Brother.” So needless to say, he’s why I’m still single.

My phone starts ringing once I pull into my parking spot. I recognize the ringtone, only one person in my phone has the “Darth Vader Theme” as their ringtone. “Jackson!” “(N/n)!” “How are you?” “I’m doing good, how are you?” “Oh, I just got to work so you know how that goes.” “Ah, yes. Well, you look good in your outfit. The (f/c) blouse goes with the black (skirt/pants).” “Oh, I know right? I just—wait, how do you know what I’m wearing?” I get out of my car and see Jackson standing by the entrance of the business park.

“Surprise cupcake!” I shriek and run to him. “Oh my god! I missed you so freaking much!” “Oh I missed you too!” “What are you doing here? I thought I was gonna pick you and Adeline up after work…” “Well, we decided to come and surprise you early! Unfortunately, her boss need her to listening on a few meetings today; so while she’s doing that I’m going to pester you while you work.”

I laugh at my brother, “Oh, no. what you do is not pestering. What my boss, Michael does, is pestering.” “Oh I finally get to meet him. Along with this Jim guy you are always talking about.” “Yep. And I only talk about him because he’s my best friend.” “Sure, and I’m the creator of the Krabby Patty.” I playfully push him towards the door, “Let’s just get inside you moron.” He then pushes me in retaliation and darts to the door, I abandon all my sanity and run after him giggling.

3rd POV

After hearing a shriek coming from outside, everyone in the office looks around and notices that one of their co-workers is missing. They then proceed to run to the conference room windows to see what was happening. They all look out with concern – even Stanley, Angela, and Dwight – but none with more concern than Jim.

Once they make it, Michael gasps, “(Y/n) has a boyfriend! Oh my god (Y/n) has a boyfriend!”They all look out to see her run and embrace a man they’ve never seen before. He spins her around in the hug and they talk for a bit, completely unaware of the audience.

Pam looks to Jim who looks heartbroken at (Y/n) and her presumed boyfriend. She rubs him back comfortingly as tears gather in his eyes. He then sees them push each other jokingly and (Y/n) rushing after him into the building.

As everyone goes back to their desks to seem inconspicuous, Jim goes into the bathroom to collect himself.

_“So…(Y/n) has a boyfriend…I-I hope s-she’s happy…” Jim starts to sob and the camera men look at him sympathetically._

Pam’s POV

I feel so bad for Jim. But, I think Michael jumped the gun saying that he was her boyfriend. Actually, she told me that if she ever did get a boyfriend that she was gonna let me know. And she never said anything, so I think this is a huge misunderstanding.

I look at the door when I hear it open and see (Y/n) and the mystery man come into the office. Everyone looks over even Jim who just got to his desk. I speak up, knowing it’d be better if I say something before anyone else. “Hey (Y/n), how are you?” “Hey Pam, I’m doing fantastic. Oh this is Jackson, Jackson this is Pam.” “Hey it’s nice to meet you.” “You as well.”

Just as they walk over to (Y/n)’s desk, a girl who looks a lot like Amy Adams came in with a huge case. “Hello, may I help you?” “Hey, yes I was hoping that I could sell some purses here?” “Um, I’ll have to ask my boss. Just a second.” I get up and see Jim, (Y/n), and Jackson talking. Maybe Jim’s trying to get along with, whoever Jackson is to (Y/n).

(Y/n) POV

I bring Jackson over to my desk and he sits in my chair before I was able to put my stuff down. “Seriously?” “Yes, seriously.” We laugh and I see Jim sitting there. “Hey Jim! How are you?” “Hey, I’m doing ok, how about you?” “I’m great. I wanna introduce you to Jackson, Jackson this is Jim.” Jim turns to Jackson and extends his hand, “Hey, nice to meet you.” “Nice to meet you too. (Y/n) won’t shut up about you, Jim.” I start to blush, “Oh shut up.” “What? It’s true.”

We share laugh and then my phone rings, I see that it’s my lawyer. “Oh, I gotta take this. Jackson, be nice and stay here. Don’t go anywhere without me, or Jim. Jim watch him, he can get crazy.” “I’m not a child you know, cupcake.” “Yes you are.”

I go into the entrance and answer the phone, “Hey Mr. (L/n). What’s up?” “Your aunt is trying to claim that she has evidence that she is the one entitled to the money your parents left you. Even though the courts know this is not possible, as your folks left all of the legal documents in their safety deposit bank, you’re gonna need to go to California to put all of this to rest. And then all of this will stop as she will be on record and can’t try to take the money.” (A/n: I have no idea how this part of the government works, but for the sake of the story, pretend it goes that way.)

I breathe a sigh of relief, “Ok, thank you. When should I be in California?” “The ‘trial’ is scheduled two months from now, so you’re not in a big hurry to get here.” “Alright, got it. Thank you again.” “No problem, Ms. (L/n).”

Once I’ve hung up, I go back up to the office, only to see the lady with handbags flirtatiously looking at Jackson. Just as he is protective of me, I’m protective of him. I walk over to Jackson and hug him from behind and whisper in his ear, “Red head bag lady is undressing you with her eyes. Be careful with her.” He whispers back, “She is? Ugh, well I’m taken by the best girl in the world already so…I can handle her though.” “I know, but if she gets too ‘friendly’ or handsy, plan-protective goes into effect.” “You got it.”

_“So, plan-protective is something that we came up with before Adeline and Jackson got together. If we ever went somewhere and someone was being too flirty with either me or Jackson, we would pretend to be together to get them to back off.” Jackson comes in and sits down, “So you do this, while working?” “Yup.” “…cool.”_

Lunch time rolls around and Jackson and I are eating with Jim, Roy, and Pam. I’ve told Jackson about Roy and he hates him as much as I do…especially when I told him what happened at Meredith’s birthday.

“Hey, Jimmy what do you think of that little purse girl, huh?” Roy askes Jim.

“Cute, sure, yeah.”

“Why don’t you get on that?”

“She’s not really my type.” Why…why does that make me happy that she’s not his type?

Roy turns to Jackson, “How about you Jack? Is she your type?”

“Not at all.”

“What are you two gay?”

“Hmmm, I don’t think so. Nope./Not at all.”

“What is your type?” Kevin asks.

I notice Jim look at me, “Moms, primarily. Yep. Soccer moms. Single moms. NASCAR moms. Any type of moms, really.” Jackson and I chuckle.

“That’s disgusting.”

“Stay away from my mom.”

“Too late, Kev.”

Jackson and I are facing the door that leads to the main office and the purse girl, Katy, walks in and winks at Jackson before going into the bathroom. I glare at her and imagine Adeline and I going all Black Widow on her. Jackson rubs my back knowing exactly what I’m thinking. What I don’t notice, is Jim look at us dejectedly and Pam looking at Jim with sympathy.

“Man, I would be all over that if I wasn’t dating Pam.” Jackson and I freeze in unison and turn to Roy out of disbelief, along with Pam.

“We’re not dating, we’re engaged.” Roy just looks at her, “Engaged, yeah.” Pam just shakes her head and leaves. I glare at Roy before following her, only to find her in her car crying. Time to comfort my best friend.

Jackson POV

What? How can you be engaged to someone and say that?! I’m engaged too and I never even look at women other than my Adeline, much less even think about it.

I glare at Roy, “What the hell is wrong with you? How can you be engaged to someone and say stuff like that?”

“She knew I was joking, and what’s it to you? It’s not like you know what it’s like to be engaged for an extended period of time.”

“You don’t know anything about me. I could be engaged, I could not. But if you don’t even respect women, then you’re a pathetic excuse of a human being.” Roy stands up, trying to intimidate me, “You wanna say that again?” I stand up, him seeing my size for the first time. Despite being the same height, I’m more – as (Y/n) says – “strapping and menacing” and I notice him flinch. “You heard me the first time. Oh, and I heard what you did to (Y/n) at your co-worker Meredith’s party. I understand you thought it was Pam, but then you would’ve hurt your fiancé. You. Are. A. Pathetic. Excuse. Of. A. Human. Being. If I hear you’ve hurt (Y/n) again, or her best friend. My buddies and I will pound you into dust.”

Jim finally stands up, “Ok, I think we all need to take a breather. Um, Jackson, why don’t we take a walk outside?” “Yeah ok.” I look back to Roy, who looks frightened. I jolt toward him and he jumps. I smirk and follow my little sisters’ “boyfriend.”

“You, know, I didn’t like him already from what (Y/n)’s told me about that Roy guy. Now I despise him.”

“Well, I think you scared him.”

“That was the point.”

“So…um…how long have you known (Y/n)?”

“Oh we go back years. Back when she was living in California. Whenever she had arguments with her Aunt she would always come to me just to escape from her. She would just rant and I would just listen because once she get going, she can’t stop.”

“Yeah that how she is.” I look at Jim, who has a look I recognize all too well. I wear that look every time I think of Adeline. Wow...he’s already in too deep. “So Jim, anyone special in your life?” He looks startled a bit. “Um, not really. I mean, I do love this one girl but…she apparently has a boyfriend.”

Boyfriend? (Y/n) doesn’t – oh. “What do you mean ‘apparently’? She hasn’t told you?” “Well, no but I just –” “(Y/n) would’ve told me she had a boyfriend; and she hasn’t so you still have a chance.”

Jim POV

What? He’s not her boyfriend? “Um, why did you mention (Y/n)?” “Because you look at her the same way I do with Adeline.” “Who’s Adeline?” “My fiancé.”

_“So, he’s engaged…he’s not seeing (Y/n). I feel much better now.” I smile at the camera with relief._

“Umm…” “Look, I’m more observant than most. I can see the love you hold for my little sister. Gathering that, along with what (Y/n) has told me about you, I’m giving you my blessing and approval to date her as her older brother.”

I stare in shock, “Oh um, thank you.” “Yep. But you should know, if you hurt her, the police won’t be able to find your body.”

(Y/n) POV

After comforting Pam, I’m standing at her desk while she’s on her phone, when Jim and Jackson come rushing over to us.

Jackson hangs up the phone and Jim comes by me, “Okay, shhh stop…stop whatever you’re doing because this going to be good. ‘Hi, my name’s Dwight Schrute and I would like to buy a purse from you.’” Jackson joins Jim in mimicking Dwight, “Good lord, look at these purses! This is something special.” “Oh my god is this Salvatore Dacinni-asta?”

Not wanting the boys to have all the fun, I jump in, “Oh definitely, definitely step in and out of it like that.” “Yes, well I want to stress test it. You know, incase anything happens.” “Oh!” Pam exclaims after Dwight starts hitting the table with a purse. “Oh! That was really, this is necessary to do to really give it a good workout.” “This is the ooooh…this is the prettiest one of all.” “I’m going to be the prettiest girl in the ball. Oh, how much?” “Oh, god. It’s sad. It’s so sad.” “Mhmm…Here he comes, shh..”

Dwight looks at the four of us and give us a thumbs up. Jackson speaks up, “He did pick a good one.”

“You two are horrible. Oh, Jackson, Adeline is coming around at the end of work and then wants to go to that restaurant you guys wanted to try.”

“Oh, awesome! Hey, Jim, you wanna come with us? So I’m not the only guy?”

I hit him, “Oh, please! You just want an excuse to know if anything embarrassing has happened to me since I moved here.”

“That’s true. So what do you say Jim?”

“Oh yeah that sounds good.”

“Nice, oh Pam you should come too!”

“I wish I could, but Roy promised that he’d take me out tonight to make it up to me for his comment earlier.”

“Ok, if you change your mind though, call me.”

“Alright.”

*Time skip*

It’s getting close to the end of the work day and Adeline will be here in a few minutes. I’ve been keeping an eye on the purse lady and she’s been eyeing Jackson and Jim all day. If she tries anything, I’ll go crazy on her.

As I’m packing up, I notice her smirk and sashay her way to Jackson, I freeze and glare at her. Thankfully I’m within hearing distance, “Hey, I’m Katy, and you are?”

He stares blankly at her, “Jackson.”

“Well, Jackson, my ride cancelled on me and I was hoping a big, strong man like you would be able to drive me home.”

“No, I have plans, and I don’t like you.”

“Oh, but if you spend some time with me, I’m sure I’ll be able to change your mind.”

“No you won’t. I’m HAPPILY engaged.”

“Well, I don’t see her around, as I don’t see you and the shorty together.”

I cringe knowing what’s coming, “Now you listen here: you do not talk about my little sister like that. She’s 100 times more woman than you’ll ever be. And as for not see my fiancé—”

“All you have to do is turn around and you’ll see her.”

Everyone turns to see Adeline standing there with a smug, yet menacing look on her face. I see Katy pales at the sight of her. She’s a bit taller than Katy, but wearing heels makes her even taller.

“Step away from my fiancé…now.”

Katy then scurries over to Jim, who walks over to me. She huffs irritated and leaves with her stuff following Michael who was apparently the person who was supposed to be taking her. Adeline then turns to us, ”Dinner?” “Dinner.” “Oh, is this the famous Jim I hear so much about?” I hit her arm, “Yes, yes it is. Now I’m starving, let’s go.”

We all get into our respective cars and head to the restaurant. Unbeknownst to me, Pam smirking as the four of us go to dinner.

_“Yes, I may have lied about Roy wanting to make it up to me about his comment earlier. I wanted to subtly send (Y/n) and Jim on a double date with her friends…they’ll thank me one day.” Pam smirks at the camera, and winks at Brian, the boom operator._


End file.
